1911] Collins,— Flora of Lower Cape Cod; third Note 19 
grass, and the Manual speaks of it as common, but it has not been 
common for a very long time; when the flora of Middlesex County 
was compiled by Mr. Dame and myself, we could find only three 
localities in the county, two in mill waste and one ina dump. In my 
first note I mentioned Plantago aristata var. Nuttallii, a variety not 
in the Manual; in this variety the spikes are short and few-flowered, 
and the whole plant is much smaller than in typical P. aristata. 
This year I found both forms in abundance growing together, and in 
an uninterrupted series from the largest to the smallest; the dis- 
tinction seems hardly justified. Physalis pruinosa was not uncommon 
in sandy roads; the berry is a rather bright yellow. To the species 
of Solidago already mentioned I can add S. bicolor, but only a few scat- 
tered plants observed; S. puberula is more common than I supposed. 
Gerardia purpurea and G. pedicularia occur, in addition to G. pauper- 
cula, already noted; and Ranunculus sceleratus can be added to R. 
repens. The total absence of Desmodium is all the more noticeable 
now that I have Lespedeza Stuvei and L. procumbens to add to L. 
capitata, all well developed and not uncommon. Eight miles up the 
Cape, at Brewster, where there is some approach to more ordinary 
conditions, Desmodium is found to a considerable extent, but it is all 
one species, D. obtusum. When we consider the great variety of 
Desmodiums found over nearly all New England, it is evident that 
the special Cape Cod conditions are distinetly unfavorable to this 
genus. 
The common Asclepias in Eastham is A. amplexicaulis, but in some 
respects the plants did not agree exactly with the description in the 
Manual, according to which the leaves are very obtuse or retuse. In 
no case did I find a leaf with a retuse apex, and in some cases it could 
hardly be called obtuse but in every instance the midrib terminated 
in a distinct mucro. I preserved quite a suite of specimens and sub- 
mitted them to Prof. Fernald, who tells me that there is no doubt as 
to the determination, specimens from other localities having the same 
characters. The absence of mention of another character in the 
descriptions is easily accounted for, as it is to be seen to advantage 
only in the fresh plant; the midrib of the leaf is bright red, and there 
is a very narrow red margin, distinct enough by its bright color, but 
of hardly measurable width; it soon fades out in the dried plant. 
In this species the leaves are regularly in pairs, with a long peduncle 
between the highest pair and the inflorescence; but one plant had the 
leaves in whorls of three, with a single well-developed leaf at the base 
