2 Rhodora [JANUARY 
has described and figured the species from flowering specimens 
formerly sent to Mr. Pollard. Under the circumstances I am sure 
there will be no discourtesy, if from the new material in my posses- 
sion I supplement his description, and point out some of the errors 
into which he has fallen from not knowing the mature fruit of this 
and of some of the other specimens cited. 
With these data in hand it is not “difficult to decide the system- 
atic position of this species." It is a very close ally of V. septentrio- 
nalis. In fact, I find only two evident characters by which it can be 
distinguished from that species,— the narrowness of the leaf and the 
absence of ciliation in the sepals. The two species are alike in 
pubescence, inthe color of the petals, in the bearded spurred petal, 
in having sagittate cleistogamous flowers on short declined peduncles, 
and in the size, color and shape of the capsules. In midsummer the 
leaf and the capsule of V. Movae-Angliae naturally attain to a greater 
development than is indicated in Mr. House’s dimensions, and the 
leaf loses the thinness of texture of which he speaks. 
In addition to the type specimens from Fort Kent, Mr. House has 
cited as referable to this species specimens from four other stations. 
The St. Francis plant is unquestionably the same, growing along the 
same river fifteen miles farther up. But the plant from Orono, 
Maine (no. 2256 Fernald) is surely to be otherwise disposed of ; as 
Mr. House would have doubtless himself admitted, had he seen the 
plants collected from the same station the following September. 
Oddly enough, this is one of the plants cited by me in RHODORA 
(vi. 216) as V. septentrionalis X fimbriatula, growing with the parent 
forms. Not only are the leaves of this much wider than in P. 
Novae-Angliae and the sepals ciliate; but also some of the cleisto- 
gamous capsules are quite green as in V. fimbriatula, and all more 
or less sterile. In fact, the Orono specimens are quite like Mr. 
Mathews's excellent drawing of this hybrid.* (RHopora, Plate 58, 
fig. a.) 
1 The above comment was based upon specimens of Mr. Fernald's no. 2256 in 
the Gray Herbarium. Since, I have been able through the courtesy of Dr. 
Rose to examine the sheet of this seen by Mr. House in the National Herbarium. 
It is interesting to note that two of the four plants there shown are the above 
named hybrid; but closely intermingled with them are two plants of V. septen- 
trionalis, one of the parent forms. It may be readily distinguished from the 
hybrid by the broader leaf, scantier pubescence, and the notably less conspicuous 
stipules. 
