158 Rhodora [Jus 
New Brunswick. The capsule and seed were exactly like the capsule 
and seed of the Asian Z. setosa. In your note you point out the 
features of the capsule of the Canadian Iris. I may add that the 
small dense seed, pyriform or oval except for the very conspicuous 
raphe, is most distinct. Not only is it wholly different from the 
wedge-shaped seed of Z. versicolor (which in turn is almost identical 
with that of the European Z. pseudacorus, the two plants being the 
New World and Old World forms of the same type) but so unlike the 
seed of other Irises known to me that I think I could always recog- 
nize it and detect it mixed with other seed. ‘That of Z. ensata comes 
nearest to it. 
Mr. Fletcher's root flowered with me last summer (1889), and I 
must confess that I cannot see in itany specific differences from the 
Asian /ris setosa. The distinguishing feature of Z. setosa is the 
diminished inner perianth-segment or standard, in which a very short 
narrow claw suddenly expands into a minute ala on each side, the 
two together not reaching the width of 1 cm., and then rapidly nar- 
rows to a bristle-like point, the whole segment being only about 1.5 
or at most 2 cm. in length. In Z. versicolor, the standards are some- 
times small but never so small as this, and, moreover, they are 
always ovate or ovate-lanceolate. 
The Canadian plant differs from what I may perhaps consider as 
the typical Asian plant, in the standard not narrowing rapidly to a 
point from the alae, but, after narrowing somewhat, maintaining the 
same width for a space and then suddenly becoming pointed; in the 
blade of the outer perianth-segment being more orbicular; in the 
claw of the same having a more pronounced flange at its base ; in the 
white patch or “signal” at the junction of the claw and blade being 
less sharply defined, and in the ovary being more distinctly grooved 
on the sides. In all these features, however, except the first, seed- 
lings of the Asian Z. sefosa vary a good deal. The inflorescence of 
the Canadian plant was not so full and the foliage not so luxuriant 
as those of a well grown Asian plant; but these, I take it, are merely 
matters of cultivation. The slight apparently permanent difference 
noted above, seems to be hardly enough to found a species upon. 
The Canadian plant is at most a variety and might be called Zrzs 
setosa, var. canadensis. 
I may add that a plant said to come from Newfoundland, which 
my friend Mr. Max Leichtlin of Baden Baden gave me, appears to 
