256 Rhodora [OCTOBER 
TWO PLANTS NEW TO THE FLORA OF LYNN, 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
L. A. WENTWORTH. 
Ir is a pleasure to call attention to two plants of considerable inter- 
est, which do not appear ever to have been recorded as occurring in 
this vicinity. The first of these is Geranium pratense L., a European 
species, already reported as well established in Maine. It occurs in 
a healthy and growing colony in a meadow at Swampscott, Massa- 
chusetts, and presents a pretty sight in the flowering season. In 
the size of its flowers and in its general habit it is not very unlike 
our native G. maculatum, L., but the leaves are cleft into narrower 
segments. 
Centaurea solstitialis, L., seems more of a curiosity than the fore- 
going plant on account of its curious involucral spines and bright 
yellow florets, the latter feature being quite an oddity among our local 
members of the Cyzareae, which, with few exceptions, bear purple 
flowers. The plant was first discovered in August, 1902, at Lynn, 
but its blossoming season here begins early in July, according to 
observations made this year. The plant is easily distinguished, not 
only by its well marked involucre but by its broadly winged stems, 
which are thickly covered with a cottony down and branch in an 
exceedingly sprawling manner; the lower leaves are also quite dis- 
tinct in outline and remind one of the foliage of the Lactucas. The 
species seems not to have been reported from America before, It 
is a native of the Mediterranean region, although it is said to occur 
in Central Europe as a fugitive weed in cultivated ground. It is one 
of several species of this attractive although pernicious genus, which 
have rather recently made their appearance in New England.! As 
the group is very large in the Old World, still others may be expected. 
Specimens of Geranium and Centaurea, above discussed, have been 
deposited in the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. 
While Potentilla tridentata, L., is a plant so frequent to the north- 
1 Centaurea solstitialis, L., has been found as a ballast weed in the vicinity of 
New York City; see Bull. Torr. Bot. Club. vi, 257, & xii, 39. It is also said to 
occur occasionally in the southern United States and in California; see, for 
instance, Hilgard, Gard. & For. iv. 424 (1891). 
