1902] Fernald, — An Anomalous Skullcap 137 



ing near together, fruit simultaneously. It is probable that these are 

 ecological varieties, that is, forms responding in a marked manner to 

 environmental influences even during the development of a single gen- 

 eration. This would be difficult to prove except by cultures. 



The differences are well shown by the accompanying plate, kindly 

 drawn by Mr. F. Schuyler Mathews. 



Explanation of Plate 37 — Hypericum Bissellii: fig. 1, habit; fig. 2, 

 expanded calyx ; fig. 3, petal ; fig. 4, cross-section of the ovary. //. adpres- 

 sum : fig. 5, part of the stem ; fig. 6. branched base ; fig. 7, petal ; fig. 8, 

 expanded calyx ; fig. 9, cross-section of the ovary ; H. adpressum, var. spong- 

 iosum ; fig. 10, part of the stem; fig. 11, spongy* base of stem. 



AN ANOMALOUS SKULLCAP. 



M. L. Fernald. 



(Plate 3 8.) 



Judge J. R. Churchill has called the attention of the writer to 

 a peculiar Scutellaria collected by him on the beach of the Aroos- 

 took River at Fort Fairfield, Maine. The plant was gathered as 

 S. gakriculata and a single specimen only was taken "for locality.'" 

 A plant essentially identical with Judge Churchill's Fort Fairfield 

 material had previously been collected by the writer in river-thickets 

 at Masardis, seventy-five miles further up the Aroostook than Fort 

 Fairfield. This material was passed without examination as ,5. lateri- 

 flora, but subsequent study of it in connection with the Fort Fairfield 

 plant shows it to be of more than ordinary interest. 



Its showy blue-violet flowers in the axils of the large leaves, though 

 smaller than in that species, immediately suggest S. galericulata\ 

 but the thin primary leaves are ovate, long-acuminate, coarsely 

 crenate-dentate, and on slender petioles, thus closely simulating those 

 of S. lateriflora. This Aroostook River plant is, therefore, essen- 

 tially intermediate in its characters between the two common species 

 of New England. Combining thus the characters of two species the 

 plant may be of hybrid origin. Yet the independent collection of 

 specimens at remote points and in each case merely " for locality "' 

 suggests that the plant is common throughout the Aroostook Valley, 

 and is to be regarded as analogous to certain other New England 

 species, — Circaea intermedia, Apocynum medium, Lysimachia producta, 



