174 Rhodora [Augtjbt 



alleys in West Philadelphia, probably originating from old plants 

 which had been thrown over a fence the preceding Fall." 



Dr. Witmer Stone, one of the most energetic explorers of southern 

 New Jersey and familiar with many parts of Pennsylvania, recalls 

 having seen only a few roadside plants in (ierntantown, Philadelphia. 

 Dr. John W. Eekfeldt records a couple of plants with Alfalfa used as a 

 hinder on the railroad hanks helow Haddonfield, New Jersey. Dr. 

 Arthur Jones recalls the plant in some of the old towns of southern New 

 Jersey hut always as a rare garden escape or upon dumping grounds. 



Professor \V. A. Kline of Ursinus College, who is familiar with the 

 Parkiomen Valley, considers it a very rare plant of roadsides or 

 dumps. Mr. Joseph Crawford notes a rare occurrence on dumps and 

 waste ground, often due to the thrown out dead plants of the pre- 

 vious year. Mr. W. H. Leibelsperger, working in Berks County, 

 Pennsylvania, records the species as very rare along roadsides.' 

 None of these observers have ever seen the plant anywhere actually 

 naturalized. 



Dr. J. M. MacFarlane and Dr. John YV. Harshberger of the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania, both of whom have had wide field experience in 

 the local area, are in agreement that this is a plant never straying far, 

 in their experience, from its source in cultivation, or becoming inde- 

 pendently established. 



Not merely the mechanical difficulties of endeavoring to obtain 

 reports from collectors all over the eastern United States have led 

 me to confine this expression of opinion to collectors from the Phila- 

 delphia region, but the fact that this area lies midway in the eastern 

 range accorded the specie's would seem to offer a fair mean of con- 

 ditions. As a suggestion of the probable verity of this, of the three 

 collectors reporting the plant in the Connecticut Catalogue, Dr. 

 Eames writes me: "In regard to ]). Ajacis being really naturalized in 

 any case would say that it persisted for many years about a garden in 

 Bridgeport. In one other instance it appeared to be thoroughly 

 naturalized along a roadside, upon ledges in thin, rather dry soil, and 

 in an adjoining field in Weston, Connecticut, when seen some years 

 ago — a station, however, but little more than a stone's throw from 

 an old house, although in land not under cultivation in recent years, 



1 Mr. I.('il>els|KTK<T, ill correspondence, speaks of this, or wwthrr spirits, occurring in ffrain- 

 lielcls in his vicinity. It is rather confidently expected that this will prove to he /). ('.ousoiulii. 

 lml specimen evidence is uiifortunutely not available at this writing. 



