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148 Rhodora [AucusT 
material. In its absolutely simple monocephalous habit it is extreme, 
the simplest plants from Maine being usually somewhat branched. 
The leaves of the James Bay plant are badly crumpled but so far as 
the writer is able to make out by reconstruction they are blunt or 
obtuse and with very obscure toothing, the largest leaves measuring 
about 4 cm. long. The outer bracts of the involucre are 1.5-1.7 cm. 
long, only slightly exceeding the disk; and the achenes of the Macoun 
material, some of which have been kindly loaned by Dr. Sherff, - 
measure barely 6 mm. in length, with the marginal awns about 3 mm. 
long. In these measurements the achenes are like the commoner 
plant of the Penobscot, Kennebec and Merrimac systems, but much 
smaller than in the plant of Gaspé rivers or in a very extreme plant 
which occupies the tidal flats of Cathance River in Maine. But the 
commoner Maine plant, B. colpophila, is much larger in its develop- 
ment than the James Bay specimens, all material definitely branching 
with the exception of obviously depauperate individuals in which, 
however, incipient branches are evident. The Maine plant, B. 
colpophila, ordinarily has longer leaves which are mostly long-attenu- 
ate at tip and more definitely toothed than in typical B. hyperborea; 
and the outer involucre in B. colpophila is decidedly longer, the bracts 
usually exceeding the disk. 
A plant which abounds on the tidal flats of Cathance River and 
which has been distributed as B. colpophila stands apart from both 
typical B. hyperborea and true B. colpophila by its much longer achenes. 
This plant, of which several numbers representing minor variations 
have been collected, has the outer achenes 7.5-8.5 mm. long, the inner 
8.7-10 mm. long with the marginal awns 3.5-5 mm. long, and on ac- 
count of its extreme abundance along Cathance River and the uni- 
formity of the material collected in large quantity at different spots 
is considered a pronounced geographic variant. The Gaspé plant 
which was originally taken for B. hyperborea departs from that species 
in certain conspicuous traits, although its very small subentire leaves 
are essentially identical with those of the James Bay plant. The 
Gaspé material shows a very strong tendency to produce numerous 
arcuate branches; its outer involucre consists of very frondose bracts, 
2-6 cm. long, and its achenes are as long as in the Cathance River 
variant, the outer 6-8 mm. long, the inner 7.5-10 mm. long with 
marginal awns 3-3.5 mm. long. 
To summarize, B. hyperborea, as now understood, is an estuary 
