76 Rhodora [APRIL 
R. inerme can be maintained as a distinct species, there is no question 
that R. saxosum is distinct from it in several fairly marked characters. 
The two varieties of the eastern Ribes hirtellum should bear the fol- 
lowing names. 
RIBES HIRTELLUM Michx., var. calcicola (Fernald) n. comb. R. 
oxycanthoides, var. calcicola Fernald, Rnopona, vii. 155 (1905). 
R. HIRTELLUM, var. saxosum (Hook.) n. comb. R. saxosum Hook. 
Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 231 (1834). R. oxyacanthoides saxosum (Hook.) 
Coville, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. iv. 100 (1893) as to name-bringing 
synonym. 
Gray HERBARIUM. 
ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON CLEISTOGAMY.— If anyone 
whose winter rambles lead him along wet wood borders will take note 
of clumps of Panicum clandestinum he will find the upper sheaths 
split to shreds while still uninjured at the junction with the dry and 
yellow blade above. A few winters ago the cause of this was made 
known to the writer when watching a flock of chickadees near Takoma 
Park, a suburb of Washington, D. C. These animated balls of gray 
and black were having a feast on the big fat grains of the cleistogam- 
ous spikelets concealed in the sheaths. I have since found occasional 
clumps of Panicum boscii also with shredded upper sheaths. Evi- 
dently the chickadees knew of this character of P. clandestinum and 
profited by it before Linnaeus bestowed the name “clandestinum " 
on the species because of it.— Aanes Chase, Bureau of Plant Industry, 
Washington, D. C. 
Vol. 18, no. 147, including pages 37 to 56, was issued 3 March, 1911. 
