112 Rhodora [JUNE 
back of the Collins House, a spot already familiar to a score of readers 
of Ruopora, where in June the gravel is brilliant with Viola nephro- 
phylla Greene, Primula mistassinica Michx., and Senecio Balsamitae 
Muhl., with the less obvious but fully as interesting Carex Crawet 
Dewey (known from but one other station in New England — Salis- 
bury, Connecticut) and the commonly alpine C. scirpoidea Michx., and 
Scirpus Clintonii Gray, a species which in central and northern Maine 
replaces the more southern S. planifolius Muhl. In early August 
this gravel was bright with a very luxuriant and freely flowering form 
of Aster junceus Ait. with flesh-colored rays, Parnassia caroliniana 
Michx. with large creamy-white flowers, Potentilla fruticosa L., a mass 
of golden bloom, and Lobelia Kalmii L. with its delicate blue and white 
flowers, while the misty-crimson panicles of Prenanthes racemosa 
Michx. were beginning to expand. But fully as interesting to the 
botanist from southern New England was the slender wiry Sporobolus 
Richardsonis (Trin.) Merr. which forms a dense mat in the edge of 
the river-thicket as it does throughout the upper St. John River system. 
The northern half of Maine had suffered from excessive rains during 
July and was still suffering from them in early August, and at the time 
of our visit the thicket above the bridge was still loaded with compara- 
tively fresh silt and driftwood. Potentilla Anserina L. (typical) ' 
which bounds along the river at this point, had consequently failed 
to set fruit and many other plants had a drowned appearance. But 
at the spring where Kobresia elachycarpa Fernald (now overripe and 
unrecognizable) was first found? we paid our respects not only to the 
clear water but to the colony of plants which has already supplied 
scores of New England herbaria with Equisetum variegatum Schleicher, 
Triglochin palustris L., Calamagrostis neglecta, Juncus brachycarpus 
(Engelm.) Buchenau and J. alpinus Vill. In the thicket on the river- 
terrace Castilleja pallida (L.) Spreng., var. septentrionalis (Lindl.) 
Gray, Aster macrophyllus L., var. sejunctus Burgess, and Anemone 
canadensis L. were in their prime; and on the gravel were Tofieldia 
glutinosa (Michx.) Pers. with bright reddish capsules, Allium Schoeno- 
prasum L., var. sibiricum (L.) Hartm. with heads resembling those of 
Red Clover, Astragalus alpinus L., var. Brunetianus Fernald, with 
delicate dark and light lavender and white flowers, and Tanacetum 
1 See RHuopona, xi. 8 (1909). 
2 See RHODORA, v. 247-251 (1903). 
