| 
1909] Collins,— On the Flora of lower Cape Cod 127 
being about the same; Salicornia ambigua, however, rare near Boston, 
is here as common as 5. europaea and S. mucronata. Solidago semper- 
virens is very luxuriant, the heads being sometimes double the size of 
any I have seen in Essex or Middlesex. Ammophila arenaria is 
omnipresent on the sand dunes, and around the clumps one often sees 
the curious ares of circles traced by the leaves, whipped about by the 
wind that seems always to blow there. 
'The domestic species do not differ much from those of more 
favored localities, but some of the more delicate or exac ing ones are 
absent. There are balm of Gilead trees near every house, and near the 
older houses lilac bushes. At the place where I lived the lilac bush 
was as large as a small house, a dense thicket of stems below, a mass of 
leaves and flowers above; the catbird built its nest there, while the 
birds of the barnyard found it an excellent roosting place by day or 
night. Leonurus Cardiaca was about all the old barns, and Marrubium 
vulgare, equally common, seemed to take the place of catnip, which I 
saw nowhere. Saponaria officinalis and Pastinaca sativa were common, 
and Malva rotundifolia formed a narrow strip close to the walls of the 
houses and barns, seldom going far from them; Tanacetum vulgare, 
usually var. crispum, could often be found in places where now there 
was no apparent sign of human life, but in every case a search would 
show some old well or other indication that a home had once been 
there. The tansy seemed never to stray beyond the boundaries of the 
old yard, though the fence had gone a hundred years ago. On the 
slope of a hollow near my house there came out, after a rain, a carpet 
of little red, white and yellow stars; Anagallis, flowers about normal; 
Mollugo, flowers exceptionally large; Potentilla, flowers unusually 
small; so that all the flowers were nearly of a size. 
The species of general distribution, those that one would notice 
along the road or from the train window, are comparatively few, but 
each represented by many individuals. The first to attract attention 
in spring is the beach plum, Prunus maritima; it is a rather dense 
shrub, growing by roadsides or in fields, seldom as high as a man’s 
head; before the leaves appear it is covered with white flowers the 
whole length of the branches, so closely set that one can hardly touch 
the branch between them. In late summer and early autumn the 
fruit ripens, about as large as a small cherry; it is at first pale green, 
lAs the names of plants mentioned in these notes are those used in the seventh 
edition of Gray's Manual, I have not thought it necessary to add the authors' names, 
