106 Rhodora [J bd 
specimen was not a single casual picked out of a clover-field or some 
similar habitat, the occurrence was considered likely to prove of 
sufficient interest to warrant a trip to Lakewood — with the hope of 
being able to rediscover the plant and learn its actual status at this 
new locality. 
On arriving at Lakewood, June 22, 1917, the River Road, or River 
Avenue, was easily located and a course toward Toms River pursued. 
It was seen that originally, doubtless, this road ran through pine and 
oak barrens chiefly, but being one of the main highways through 
Lakewood to the shore it has become an improved road and much 
of the natural woods adjacent has given way to cleared land about 
scattered houses. When little more than a half-mile out of Lakewood 
my glance fell upon a little group of spindly-stemmed plants (and 
rosettes) growing along the roadside in the partial shade of a close 
row of Norway Spruces. "They were at once recognized as the desired 
Jasione montana, and although there was a natural disappointment in 
finding the plants still only in small bud, the discovery itself furnished 
sufficient satisfaction to make the trip already successful. The best 
developed plants of the colony were collected for specimens and some 
rosettes carefully dug for growing. In an endeavor to get out of the 
heat and glare of a day like midsummer, while putting the specimens 
in press and wrapping up the rosettes, I crawled in under the spruces. 
Glancing through the low-hanging branches into the open beyond, 
I was attracted by the semblance of a blue haze lying low over the 
ground. To a Philadelphian, " Bluebottles" at once instinctively 
came to mind. Fields and meadows blued with Muscari botryoides 
are familiar sights in but few places outside the Philadelphia area, 
however, and the simile may convey little to the generality of botanists. 
But those to whom this sight has been granted will have a definite 
point of comparison — and the only one which was suggested to me 
as I gazed across this acre or more of Jasione montana. 
Closer inspection showed a field of the most sandy, sterile character, 
evidently once cultivated but now lying fallow. Here and there 
among more common weeds were Potentilla argentea and P. recta, but 
the dominant plant, occurring in thousands upon thousands, was the 
Jasione. A more dry, torrid, and apparently sterile habitat could 
scarcely be imagined, but here these plants were flourishing in the 
greatest luxuriance. They were mostly in their first bloom, a few 
of the most robust getting into fruit. 
