172 Rhodora [August 



since seen it a number of times in the same field, most frequent when 

 the field was sown to grain, but that he had not had occasion to visit 

 the locality during the last several years. 



The records in the recent Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns 

 of Connecticut have proved in general to have been so carefully compiled 

 that it was felt advisable to investigate the reported occurrence of D. 

 Consolida from several localities in that State. Though the records 

 of Dr. E. H. Eames and Mr. Charles H. Bissell proved to be based upon 

 I). Ajacis, through the kindness of Mr. E. B. Harger 1 was able to 

 examine his specimen from Middlebury, Connecticut, and verify it as 

 authentic D. Consolida. His plant is from " newly-seeded grass-land." 

 Unfortunately his business that day, as he explains, was not botani- 

 cal and he had no opportunity to observe fully the occurrence of the 

 species. 



As regards both the New Egypt and the Middlebury locality it can 

 not therefore be asserted with confidence what the exact status of the 

 plant is at the present time, but I think it will be agreed the probabili- 

 ties are that, in the matter of persistence at a locality, this occurrence 

 of D. Consolida is quite as worthy of note as a collection of its near ally, 

 I). . [jacis. I feel confident that many stations, upon which an Ameri- 

 can range for J). Ajacis has been determined, would be difficult to 

 verify in the field at the present time. I am inclined to think that the 

 occurrence of this species, like many other garden annuals, is largely 

 due to its continual escaping from gardens rather than its ability in 

 actually establishing itself. 



Although Delphinium Ajacis seems to be tacitly accepted today by 

 the authors of our manuals as a naturalized plant, investigation into 

 this matter would seem to show that its status as such is not based 

 upon too conclusive or convincing grounds. Without doubt there are 

 scattered localities where the species may be more or less well natura- 

 lized, but it seems equally clear that only a small percentage of the 

 specimens to be found in herbaria represent actual cases of naturaliza- 

 tion — the great majority, merely casual escapes, the collection of 

 which, if not completely destroying the possibility of a permanent 

 colony, has at least often greatly reduced that possibility. 



There is a rather general agreement among the Philadelphia col- 

 lectors who know D. Ajacis outside the garden that its occurrence is 

 commonly that of single or few plants on waste ground, roadsides, 

 railroad banks, and that it rarely tends to form a really permanent 



