1919] Fernald,— Helianthemum Bicknellii 391 
spicuous flower on June 20th, the capsules were well formed on the 
30th and the last petaliferous flowers were gone and the seeds of the 
early capsules fully grown by the 4th of July. In other words H. 
propinquum had mature vernal fruit before the first petaliferous flow- 
ers of H. Bicknellii began to show, and the present writer, misled by 
Blake's identification of H. propinquum with H. majus Bicknell, 
supposed he was collecting an undescribed and remarkably distinct 
species. "There are other characters, some of which have been brought 
out by Bicknell, but these await more detailed inspection. On Cape 
Cod as farther south Helianthemum is a critical genus, and the past 
summer's observations indicate that there are other species or well- 
marked varieties to be recognized. So striking are some of these 
plants that the present writer felt it important to make as thorough 
collections as possible and in this genus alone (aided for a happy 
month by Mr. Long and for one memorable day by Mr. Weatherby) 
he consequently collected 850 sheets for future consideration. 
Although H. propinquum has been referred by Dr. Britton! to H. 
georgianum Chapman it does not seem to be quite identical with it. 
Bicknell (l. c. 616) has noted one important difference; and such 
material of H. georgianum as the writer has seen shows very much 
smaller anthers than in H. propinquum and the pubescence of the 
calyx much shorter, while the plant has a tendency to form winter- 
rosettes of basal leaves, a character not seen in our northern plants. 
Gray HERBARIUM. 
1 Britton in Britton & Brown, Ill. Fl. ed. 2, ii. 540 (1913)- 
