1899] Fernald, — Pubescent capsules of Oenothera pumila 173 
were very fragrant and the pink and white flowers very beautiful. — 
HERBERT W. JEWELL, West Farmington, Maine. 
[In August, 1896, J. Franklin Collins, W. C. Strong and M. L. Fernald saw 
this mountain bilberry in abundance on the ledgy shores of Carrabassett river in 
Jerusalem, Maine, whence it was perhaps brought from the upper slopes of Mt. 
Bigelow or Mt. Abraham. Miss Kate Furbish has collected the same species at Fort 
Kent on the St. John river. — Eb. ] 
A VIOLET-FLOWERED FORM OF THE FRINGED POLYGALA. — In 1893, I 
found by the side of an old wood road in Sudbury, Massachusetts, an 
unusual form of Polygala paucifolia, Willd., covering a space some fifteen 
feet long by two feet broad. Its flowers were a deep violet and the 
leaves more rounded than in the common typical form. The violet- 
flowered plants have now spread some hundred feet along the road and 
perhaps ten feet into the woods on each side of it. The typical form 
with rose-purple flowers, grows with the violet-flowered, just as here at 
Concord it is associated with a gradually increasing white-flowered 
form. — ALFRED W. Hosmer, Concord, Mass. 
PUBESCENT CAPSULES OF OENOTHERA PUMILA. — During a visit to 
southern Maine I found the common plant, which I had always called 
Oenothera pumila, passing as Oe. fruticosa. The local botanists, fol- 
lowing the current descriptions, said * This cannot be Oe. pumila, for it 
has pubescent pods." Upon examination of herbarium material it ap- 
pears that the Maine specimens are in no way unique. Many plants 
from various regions have the capsules finely puberulous, and the wings 
bear, especially along the edges, more or less abundant elongated 
glandular hairs. Similar hairs are also found on the stem. Other plants 
have the capsules quite glabrous or with only a few scattered hairs, so 
that it is probable that the plants with pubescent capsules cannot be 
separated from the more glabrate form. Reference to recent manuals 
and monographs of the group shows that the capsule has of late been 
uniformly described as glabrous. In the key to this species (as Xneifía 
pumila, Spach), however, in the Illustrated Flora, Dr. Small says 
* pedicels and capsules glabrous or glabrate," but in the specific de- 
scription the latter word is omitted and the accompanying figure shows 
what is apparently a glabrous capsule. Linnzeus, in his original descrip- 
