212 Rhodora [October 



it is here, I think, that the shrub first started. It must be evident to 

 any careful observer that Magnolia glauca is struggling here in an 

 unnatural climate. The primary roots grow straight down into the 

 muck, and in the fall are thickly covered with rootlets, snowy white 

 in color. In the spring these rootlets are mostly dead, and a greater 

 part of young shoots die down to the moss, and a certain per cent 

 of the old plants arc winter-killed, which indicates that there is no 

 harmony between shrub and climate" 



Mr. Walter Deane has given me the following letter from Mr. ('. E. 

 Faxon which shows the condition of the swamp in the summer of 

 1913. 



April 17, 1916. 

 Dear Mr. Deane: 



I have just found in Garden and Forest an interesting letter from Mr. 

 Fuller giving a marginal note from Judge Davis's ropy of Bigelow's Plants of 

 Boston. . . . When I first visited the swamp some 45 years ago there were 

 plenty of good specimens all about, sometimes 15 feet tall or more. It was 

 easy to find them, as the boys who sold the flowers on the Boston trains hail 

 made trails from one plant to another all over the swamp. 



When 1 visited the place with Dr. Kennedy two years ago we found with 

 the aid of the Tree Warden of the town, only two little plants a few feet high 

 thill had escaped the Magnolia hunters such had heen the destruction! 



Yours faithfully, 



C. E. Faxon. 



From this it is plainly evident that unless some prompt measures 

 are taken for its safety we shall very soon have seen the last of this 

 delightful Mower in our Massachusetts flora. 



Rkadville, Massachusetts. 



An early Flowering of Rudbeckia birta. — On April 25, 1916, 



I discovered on the campus of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 

 lege a plant of Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan) in bloom. It had 

 a very short stem and was found in an exposed, sunny situation on a 

 slope. Gray gives the time of blooming of this species as from June 

 to September.— WlLLIAM S. COLEY, Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College, Amherst, Massachusetts. 



