1908] Deane,— Further Notes on the Button-bush 203 
awns 4, straight, retrorsely barbed, the 2 pairs unequal, the longer 
about 3 mm. long.— Originally described from Rupert House, James 
Bay. Found in August, 1904, on brackish or saline shores, submerged 
at high tide, near the mouths of the Bonaventure, the St. John (or 
Douglastown) and the Dartmouth Rivers, QUEBEC. 
GRAY HERBARIUM. 
FURTHER NOTES ON THE BUTTON-BUSH. 
WaLTER DEANE. 
IN the December number of Кнорока for 1902 (iv. 243-4) I pub- 
lished an account of the persistence of the Button-bush on the farm of 
Mr. Augustus E. Philbrook of Shelburne, New Hampshire. The place 
where it grew had been drained and the bushes, though buried under 
three feet of sand and loam, had persisted in pushing their way up to 
the light, and for thirty-seven years had flourished, flowering in pro- 
fusion in their most unnatural quarters, despite the fact that the space 
in which they grew had long been enclosed and used as a yard for pigs 
and hens. Notwithstanding the treatment that the Button-bush 
received, it grew as if unconscious of its changed surroundings. 
I have visited Philbrook Farm every year since 1902 and have 
watched with interest the struggle for existence of my plants. ‘Though 
at the time when I wrote the article I thought that there was no limit 
to their life, I was soon aware that each year the number of living stems 
was diminishing with considerable rapidity. This was apparently 
due wholly to the fact that the plants were being entirely denuded of 
their bark at the base, owing to the too great familiarity of their 
porcine companions. 
In 1907 feeling that the little colony was playing a losing game, I 
had a small space of between three and four square meters enclosed 
in one corner of the yard. 
This was done through the kindness of Mr. Philbrook who has been 
much interested in this singular case from the beginning. ‘The en- 
closed space included the most flourishing part of the Button-bush 
and removed it from all noxious influences. But few plants outside 
the enclosure showed any signs of life. 
