56 



centage ever gets a chance to form, and of those which do sprout, 

 again but a small percentage survives to become bearing trees. 

 As the number of trees reproducing the general features of the origi- 

 nal may be as a hundred to one of the more strikingly aberrant 

 forms, we may see that thougli individual instances may be common, 

 we are never likely to meet many trees of one stamp. Once in a 

 while an individual tree may find itself in a situation favorable to 

 the preservation of a number of seedhngs, which might endure till 

 again reproductive ; and in such cases a marked variety may originate 

 and make its way over the earth. 



I have often thought it probable that in time a few individuals of 



these suddenly introduced forms might again leap into new features, 



and then if they should be able to sustain themselves, we should have 



new species quite independently of any principle of natural selection; 



that principle, as I understand it, being governed chiefly by " envi- 

 ronment." 



Germantown, Pa. Thomas Meehan. 



Eleocharis nodulosa, Schultes, Nees {E. consanguinea, Kunth., 

 En. Pi. ii, 148.)— This Eleocharis was collected by Mr. C. G. Pringle 

 in Arizona last summer. It is a South American species " not before 

 known to be a native of the United States." This is but one of the 

 nunierous and interesting additions to our flora made by Mr. Pringle 

 during his collecting tour in Arizona and California last season. In 

 his sets of Pacific Slope Plants it is ticketed ''Eleocharis. — By streams 

 of the Santa Catalina Mountains, June 27." 



_ Thanks are due Mr. Wm. Boott, of Boston, for the proper deter- 

 mination of the species. 



The following description is drawn from Pringle's specimens : 

 Culms about 20 inches high, terete, knotted with approximate 

 transverse septa, densely tufted from a creeping rootstock, sheathed 

 at the base, leafless. Spike ovate-lanceolate, about three-fourths of 

 an mch long, pomted ; scales closely imbricate, oblong or oblong- 

 lanceolate,_ obtuse, i-nerved, membranous, with a broad hyaline tip 

 and margm. Achenium obovate-pear-shaped lenticular, minutely 

 striate wuh punctate dots, and also very slightly transversely 

 wrinkled, brownish-olive, crowned with a flattened, conical tubercle. 

 Bristles 4-7, about the length of the achenium, downwardly barbed 

 stamens, two or more, usually one. 



F. LamSON SCRIBNER. 



Notes from Massachusetts—In his teratological notes in the 



January Bulletin, Mr. Trimble mentions Cirsium lanceolaium, 

 Scop., with pure white flowers. J also noted a whole colony of the 

 same extending some distance along a roadside in Hadley, Mass., 



drought. It would be interesting to note if these conditions produced 

 the form, and if it would persist the second year 



UxSr/ M'''''^'/r' ^f'^-^:'-^- discoidcum, noted by Robbins in 

 Uxbndge, Mass., I have found in this region. 



Lychnis Flos-cuculi, L., seems to be well established in a meadow 



