18 Rhodora [JANUARY 
obtained, as the spot lay along the familiar route from her home to 
school. Through her kindness, and the interest of Dr. Keller, we 
learned that it grew along the sides of a dyke, running in to South 
Broad Street from outlying farm houses, near League Island Park, in 
the southern portion of Philadelphia. "This area consists in large 
measure of the extensive alluvial flats and marshes of the lower 
Delaware, more or less intersected by ditches. "The region is not yet 
built up to any extent and the more elevated portions are frequently 
occupied by truck-farms. The southern extension of Broad Street, 
with its trolleys, offers one of the chief lines of travel in this particular 
locality, and the nearby farms often obtain access thereto by dykes 
laid down over the low meadows and more impassable places. These 
dykes are continually augmented by the dumping of ashes and 
rubbish down their sides. 
In. such a habitat, from a detailed sketch-map furnished by Miss 
Allen, the Muscari was found growing. Three small colonies, or 
clumps, were located but they were without flowers. It was hoped 
that another year a flowering specimen might be obtained, but a 
second visit to the station proved no more successful. A trail of 
withered buttercups lay along the foot-path on the top of the dyke. 
This was no place to expect to find such a striking flower waiting to 
be collected by a botanist, when who knows how many little flower- 
pickers daily passed over this dyke and spied the bright cluster of 
blossoms as soon as it appeared. So the botanist carefully dug up 
two bulbs and took them home to his garden, where he had the 
satisfaction of seeing them flower. 
The foremost question always arising on the discovery of any new 
introduction is whence and how did it arrive. Sometimes hap- 
pily, this information may be obtained readily, but too often, un- 
fortunately, mere conjecture must take its place. 
From the origin and occurrence with us of M. botryoides and M. 
racemosum it was naturally presumed that these colonies of M. 
comosum were also escapes from cultivation. But it was not found 
in gardens anywhere in the vicinity nor has it ever been seen in 
cultivation by myself or anyone of my acquaintance. Communica- 
tion with various professional gardeners, horticulturists, and seedsmen 
indicated that it was practically unknown to these men, their acquain- 
tance at best being with the horticultural form monstrosum, known as 
Feathered Hyacinth—a handsome plant bearing chiefly, or only, 
