1921] Fernald, — Expedition to Nova Scotia 271 



R. vermontanus Blanchanl, Am. Bot. vii. 1 (1904). Digby Co.: 

 moist thicket, Sandy Cove, Fernald & Long, no. 21,591 ; open sphag- 

 nous bog and moist thickets, Meteghan, Fernald & Long, nos. 21,550, 

 21,561 ; dry banks along railroad, Hectanooga, Bisscll, Pease & hin- 

 der, no. 21,588. Yarmouth Co.: peat bog, Pembroke Shore, Long 

 & hinder, no. 21,627; dryish thickets, Sand Beach, Fernald & binder, 

 no. 21,544. Shelburne Co.: rocky spruce and alder thickets, 

 Shag Harbor, and rocky railroad bank, Wood Harbor, Fernald, Bit- 

 sell & Under, nos. 21,582, 21,616^, and 21,039. 



This material is a perfect match for Blanchard's original specimens 

 from York County, Maine, of R. ycculiaris, a plant which is rightly 

 referred by Brainerd & Pcitersen to R. vermontanus. Rydberg (No. 

 Am. Fl. xxii. 477) treats R. ycculiaris as a hybrid of R. nigricans 

 (apparently R. sctosus Bigcl.) and R. yergratus, but until R. yergratus 

 is found in western Nova Scotia, where R. j)cculiaris (or R. vermon- 

 tanus) is frequent, such a disposition of it there would seem hardly 

 satisfactory. Incidentally, R. pcrgratus has the leaves velvety be- 

 neath and coarse prickles, R. yccidiaris glabrous leaves and fine al- 

 most bristle-like prickles. 



R. tardatus Blanchard. One of the most characteristic "half- 

 high" species of damp thickets. Cumberland Co.: gravelly thick- 

 ets south of Amherst, Fernald, no. 21,580. Halifax Co.: thicket 

 bordering ledgy and cobblv beach of Shubenacadie Grand Lake, 

 Fernald k Bissell, nos. 21,553, 21,550. Annapolis Co.: Middle- 

 ton, Blanchard, no. 732. Digby Co.: clearings in wet spruce woods, 

 Meteghan, Fernald & Long, no. 21,504. Yarmouth Co.: sphagnous 

 swale bordering Beaver Lake, Fernald, Bisscll, Pease, Long & hinder, 

 no. 21,571; thicket at border of sandy and peaty beach, Trefry's 

 Lake, Arcadia, Fernald & Long, no. 21,606; low woods and thickets 

 by Butler's (Gavelton) Lake, Gavelton, Fernald, Long & Under, 

 no. 21,008; thicket bordering Great Pubnico Lake, Fernald, Long & 

 Lindcr, no. 21,012. See p. 150. 



Since R. tardatus is a dominant and very constant species of boggy 

 thickets and lake-margins of Nova Scotia and of Prince Edward 

 Island, Brainerd & Petersen's treatment of it as " R. flagillaris X 

 sctosus" seems hardly satisfactory. R. flagcllaris is unknown from 

 east of southern Maine and R. sctosus is not known from Prince Ed- 

 ward Island (the material so referred in the 7th edition of Gray's 

 Manual being wrongly determined) and the only plant we have from 

 Nova Scotia which is possibly referable to it is wholly uncharacter- 

 istic and may belong to another species. 



** R. AHbKEViAN.s Blanchard. Yarmouth Co.: rocky roadsides 

 and borders of woods, Yarmouth, Pease & Long, no. 21,585, Fernald, 

 Bean & White, no. 21,545, Fernald, I^ong & Linder, no. 21,557. 



