106 Rhodora. [JUNE 
ferent from it they applied the name “yew-pine” to it. It should be 
noted also that the people of the Eastern Shore are not possessed with 
that restive spirit which characterizes those of other sections and that 
traditions have remained intact in a higher degree here than elsewhere. 
Besides the scant means of communication of earlier days, the natural 
barrier — Chesapeake Bay, and the great distance to other localities. 
for the species — would naturally prevent the people from learning 
the common name which the tree bears throughout New England 
and the Middle States. 
Taxoprum pisticuum L. The weird Bald Cypress is frequent in 
swamps in Eastern Maryland and southward. I have observed it 
along Pocomoke River where it is the prevalent tree and also along 
Blackwater River at Franklin, Va. Bartram has eulogized it in his 
Travels (p. 88) and a few lines of his may not be amiss: “its majestic 
stature is surprising; and on approaching it, we are struck with a 
kind of awe, at beholding the stateliness of the trunk, lifting its cum- 
brous top toward the skies; and casting a wide shade upon the ground, 
as a dark intervening cloud, which, for a time excludes the rays of the 
sun.” I have seen them in all their magnificence in F lorida. 
WasnINGTON, D. C. 
IS VIOLA ARENARIA DC. INDIGENOUS TO NORTH 
AMERICA? 
Ezra BRAINERD. 
(Plate 104.) 
European students of Viola have recently reduced V. arenaria 
DC. (1805) to varietal rank, as differing from the older V. rupestris - 
Schmidt (1791) only in being "densely short-hairy or downy.’ 
This requires a corresponding change in the name of the American 
species, that has been generally passing as V. arenaria since the publi- 
cation of the Illustrated Flora in 1897. But before doing this, it 
seems a fitting time to review critically the claim that the plants of 
1 Reichlich kurzhaarig oder pflaumig,— W. Becker, Flora Bayerns. 
