32 



Rhodora [February 



Prince Edward Island is 130 miles long; and the extreme breadth 

 is 34 miles. It contains over 2100 square miles, and it lies between 

 the 46th and 47th degrees of North latitude; which is about the 

 same as Aroostook County in Maine. In altitude the island nowhere 

 exceeds 500 feet, its bare rolling surface reminding one strongly of 

 our Nantucket Island ; although the great fields are more fertile and 

 cultivated. Strikingly alike also are the two ancient seaports, Sum- 

 merside and Nantucket-town, with their primitive weather-beaten 

 buildings and quiet country streets. 



It was quite in keeping with the predictions that among the first 

 plants to attract attention were two weeds which grew along the 

 plank sidewalks of these well kept streets. Our common Tall 

 Buttercup {Ranunculus acris, L.) presented here invariably so peculiar 

 an appearance, that I was quite at a loss to name it, until the recent 

 note of Mr. Fernald (Rhodora, I, 227. Dec. 1899) came to mind; 

 and it was then plain that this weed was R. acris, var. Stevcni, Lange, 

 and that I was now in the latitude where this broad-leaved form 

 should prevail, as stated in Mr. Fernald's account. 



The second gutter-plant was the Garden Cress or Peppergrass of 

 Europe {Lepidium sativum, L.). It is much taller and more slender 

 than our three common Lepidiums, and the pod is larger. Here, as 

 in England, it is merely a garden escape and not indigenous. 



At the eastern end of the village there was a considerable colony 

 of Cotuhi coronopifolia, L. This pretty plant is botanically a near 

 relative of our common Tansy, and the golden-yellow rayless flowers 

 of both are so much alike that, if it were frequent enough to have a 

 common name, it would or might popularly and appropriately be 

 called the Dwarf Tansy. It was growing in deep soft mud by the edge 

 of the marsh, and though low, its bright golden Tansy-like flowers made 

 the plant quite conspicuous. Its history is interesting. South Africa 

 is its home, but like Lord Bateman, it seems "determined to go 

 abroad; — to go strange countries for to see." It was collected on 

 salt marshes in Chelsea, Massachusetts, by Herbert A. Young in 

 1879, and by C. E. Perkins in 1880; and these specimens are in the 

 Gray herbarium. Yet it was not considered entitled to mention in 

 the Manual ; nor is it recorded in Britton and Brown's Flora. Before 

 1884 it had reached California, and in the Synoptical Flora of North 

 America (vol i. pt. 2, p. 366) it is said to be "thoroughly established 

 on the [Pacific] coast — and on some watercourses in the interior: a 

 rare ballast weed on the Atlantic coast." 



