1899] Bissell, — Hydrastis Canadensis 157 
to the half-free cap of the other which is signalized by Persoon's name 
hybrida and still better by De Candolle's semilibera, the two species 
are even better distinguished by the number and size of the spores. 
In M. hybrida, the asci contain the usual eight spores, in M. dispora 
only two — by compensation very large. 
M. bispora is apparently quite unknown in New England, though it 
was found some years ago as near as Oneida, New York.' A recent 
collection (April, 1399), was made near Plainfield, N. J., by Mr. E. H. 
Mumford. The plants in very small number were found in chestnut 
woods among dead leaves near the edge of a swamp, Erythronium 
being close by in flower. The caps were light olive and the hollow 
stems nearly white. In the dried state the vertical (or radial) ridges 
on the cap are very conspicuous, and the stem has a more or less 
pronounced red tint, which is deeper in the younger specimens. The 
spores are 60 to 65 by 15 p. Figures and descriptions of both species 
here mentioned may be found in Cooke's Mycographia (nos. 321, 
326), and in the 48th Report of the New York State Museum (p. 126, 
pl. 3). — H. WEBSTER. 
HYDRasTIS CANADENSIS, L., A New ENGLAND PLANT.— It has 
long been known to a few persons that the “ Golden Seal,” as it is 
commonly called, could be found growing in rocky woods in the 
neighborhood of Southington, Connecticut. The plant is of rare 
occurrence here and the secret of its exact location has been carefully 
guarded. Neither Gray's Manual, the Synoptical Flora, nor Britton & 
Brown's Illustrated Flora, mentions the occurrence of the plant so far 
east. I have reliable information that the species was growing here 
twenty-seven years ago, and specimens, one of which has been de- 
posited in the Gray Herbarium, have been secured as late as 1897. 
It is not unlikely that search may reveal other stations in western New 
England for this interesting and easily recognized plant. — C. H. 
BissELL, Southington, Conn. 
1 C. H. Peck, 3oth Rep. N. Y. St. Mus., p. 58. 
