98 Rhodora [May 
Convolvulus spithamaeus. The writer collected this species on a 
low gravel ridge in Franklin, in June, 1908, and has observed it grow- 
ing at the same station nearly every year since that date. This 
appears to be the only station reported from Eastern Connecticut. 
Pedicularis lanceolata. Franklin, frequent by streams and on low 
grounds. 
Bidens Eatoni. Old Lyme, in brackish marshes, where it grows 
among tall grasses and sedges, and is not easy to detect till late in the 
season. The writer’s first collection was made September 29, 1915. 
Professor M. L. Fernald states that the Lyme plant is “ perfectly good 
Bidens Eatoni; exactly like the plant from the Merrimac marshes.” 
~ Helenium nudiflorum. A colony of several hundred plants in a 
remote pasture, at Old Lyme. 
Lapsana communis. Well established in Franklin, where the writer 
has collected it for several years. New Haven is the only station 
reported in the Connecticut Catalogue. 
Sonchus arvensis. Old Lyme, on gravelly shores. 
Specimens of the above plants, with three exceptions, have been 
deposited in the Gray Herbarium, and the remaining plants will be 
deposited later. 
New Haven, Connecticut. 
NOTE ON THE PROPER NAME FOR THE SASSAFRAS.— The scientific 
name of the common Sassafras, which has suffered at least two altera- 
tions within the past four decades, must once more be changed, 
although the name to be adopted is fortunately that by which the 
species has been most universally known. The plant was originally 
described by Linnaeus as Laurus Sassafras (Sp. i. 371 (1753)). Salis- 
bury, in pursuance of that policy of “improving” scientific names to 
which he seems to have given freer rein than almost any other of the 
early botanists, based the new name Laurus variifolia (Prod. 344 
(1796)) on Laurus Sassafras L. Sp. ed. 2. 530, without a word of descrip- 
tion or annotation. His name is consequently a perfect example of 
the class of still-born names (nomina abortiva), which according to the 
International Rules of Nomenclature, as finally drawn up in 1910, 
are incapable of adoption unless employed by the first author who 
transferred the plant to its accepted position. The name Sassafras 
