24 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 
last letter and a photograph of the Willow, came only a few days before 
the telegram announcing his death. Botany therefore occupied his 
thoughts during his last days on earth. 
The death of Percival Lowell is a severe loss to the Arboretum. He 
understood its purpose and sympathized with its efforts to increase 
knowledge. Few collectors of plants have shown greater enthusiasm 
or more imagination, and living as he did in what he has himself 
described as “one of the most interesting regions of the globe” there 
is every reason to believe that as a botanist Percival Lowell would 
have become famous. 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM. 
THE GENUS ERECHTITES IN TEMPERATE 
NORTH AMERICA. 
M. L. FERNALD. 
Wate botanizing in October last along the sandy strand on the 
south side of Cape Cod, Messrs. F. K. Butters, Harold St. John, and 
the writer found a characteristic Erechtites which seemed unusual 
on account of its very fleshy foliage and the very broadly ovoid and 
abruptly acuminate heads. A few specimens were collected for 
further examination, at Hyannis on October 7, at Yarmouth on 
October 8; and after returning to Cambridge the writer was surprised 
to find that in its very long inflated achenes and in some other char- 
acters the strand plant was quite unlike EF. hieracifolia. Conse- 
quently, with Professor Butters he returned to the Cape and on 
October 14th made a further examination and collection of the strand | 
plant, which in all its characters maintains the distinctions noted in 
the original collections. The plant seems to be a very well marked 
species which is here proposed as 
Erecutires megalocarpa, n. sp, ab E. hieracifolia differt foliis 
subcarnosis; capitulis ovoideis abrupte acuminatis; involucro 1.5-2 
cm. alto, bracteis lanceolatis subobtusis ad basim dilatatam 1-3 mm. 
latis; corolla floris perfectae brunneo-lineata, lobis brunneo-margi- 
natis nervatisque, tubo viride; acheniis 4-5.5 mm. longis brunneis vel 
