13S Rhodora [June 



face are highly acid and barren, when deeply plowed and cultivated 

 they are transformed into the great orchards for which "the Valley" 

 is everywhere famed. 



The Corcma plains at Middleton, if a fair sample, as they doubt- 

 less are, indicate that the vast stretches of such country father east 

 will yield interesting results. "All hands" browsed over these 

 plains, during the afternoon, and although we became scattered, 

 Long, Pease and I eventually found ourselves within hailing dis- 

 tance and our observations will suffice for the party. The drier 

 places, where Corcmia is dominant, had dewberries, mostly Rubus 

 arenicola Blanchard, one of the characteristic trailers of Cape Cod 

 and of York County, Maine, and the sand-barren Viola fimbriatula, 

 Lcchea intermedia, Potcntilla tridentata, which abounds among the 

 dunes at Provineetown and elsewhere near the tip of Cape Cod, and 

 endless variations of Vacciniam pennsylmnicum, both the forms 

 with yellow-green foliage and those with glaucous leaves, the series 

 of variants called var. nigrum. A singular form of the glabrous 

 variety of Panicum depauperatum was abundant, always with the 

 inflorescences hidden at the base of the plant, and only when wander- 

 ing into disturbed railroad-gravel or cultivated land — miming its 

 ordinary appearance, with well-developed panicles on elongate 

 culms. In the damper Polytrichum-carpeted areas Sisyrinchium 

 arenicola (see p. 96) was found, and such places were characterized 

 by Carex atlantica, C. foenea, var. pcrplexa, C. albolutcsccns, var. cumu- 

 lata, and, more abundant than any, a sterile Carex, seeming to be a 

 hybrid of the latter and the ubiquitous C. scoparia. Bartonia rir- 

 gitlica was everywhere and the lustrous-leaved Amelanchicr stolon i- 

 fcra abounded, though sadly denuded by some catapillar, and Pyrola 

 rot undi folia, var. armaria was there, though scarce. 



In 1910, the late Dr. E. L. Greene, apparently making a change 

 of trains at Middleton (a junction point), collected a purple Gerardia 

 (now correctly known as AgalinU) and described it as Gerardia nco- 

 seotiea. One of our reasons for stopping off at Middleton was to 

 search for the type station for this northeastern representative of a 

 southern genus and to secure good naterial. The search did not 

 involve great difficulty for, in following a cartroad, Bissell and Linder 

 promptly came upon Greene's original spot (clearly indicated in the 

 original description) and collected material. By the. time they got 

 it back to the hotel most of the corollas were gone, so before break- 



