156 Rhodura [Auot»t 



After receiving Mr. Hervey's material I watched the dandelions in 

 Cambridge and found that while large areas of the Cambridge Com- 

 mon and adjacent sections were occupied by Taraxacum crytliro- 

 spermum, with corniculate-appendaged bracts, the outer short and 

 ascending or merely spreading, and T. officinale, with the bracts all 

 flat and unappendaged, the outer linear-lanceolate and strongly 

 recurved even in bud, damp sheltered situations, especially roadside 

 ditches and similar spots, were quite as often given over to T. pahtstre. 

 And in a morning walk Mr. Walter Deaneand I found T. pahtstre and 

 T. officinale scattered indiscriminately by the sidewalks on Brattle 

 Street. There, however, occurred some individuals which in their 

 involucres were not clearly either species, and which suggested that 

 the two plants are not specifically separable. 



On May 30, in company with Messrs. Luman Andrews, C. H. 

 Bisaell, and J. R. Churchill, I visited Salisbury, Connecticut; and 

 there by damp roadsides and in shaded dooryards and ditches T. 

 palustre abounded, often to the exclusion of T. officinale; and though 

 exceptional specimens showed a tendency to have more spreading 

 bracts than in the extreme of T. palustre, none with the short deltoid 

 or ovate-lanceolate outer bracts had them strongly reflexed as in T. 

 officinale. From this character alone, we found it a simple matter to 

 distinguish the two plants at some distance. The involucral charac- 

 ter, seems, however, to be the only one by which the two plants are 

 separable; and although that is usually so marked as to give the 

 plant a characteristic appearance, the tendencies noted in Cambridge 

 to a mingling of characters, lead me to conclude that it is best for 

 the present to follow Blytt in treating Taraxacum palustre as a variety 

 of T. officinale. The first of July Taraxacum palustre was found 

 in damp soil in Cutler on the extreme eastern coast of Maine by Dr. 

 G. G. Kennedy, Mr. E. F. Williams and the writer ; and a few days 

 later on the Aroostook River in Northern Maine by Mi. Williams 

 and the writer. 



Besides the fresh material studied during the spring, I have seen 

 two herbarium specimens, one collected on Blue Hill, Milton. Massa- 

 chusetts, by Dr. G. G. Kennedy in April, 1896, the other at Rutland, 

 Vermont, by Mr. W. W. Kggleston in June, 1899. These collections 

 indicate that the plant is to be expected over a broad range. 



The three dandelions now known to be well established in New 

 England may be quickly distinguished as follows. 



