10 
with some marked floral characters, they probably should be 
referred as varieties, one of B. hirsuta and the other of B. oligo- 
stachya. No. 24 of the collection, erroneously distributed as 
B. hirsuta, is one of the forms (B. oligostachya, var. major), but 
smaller than those raised from seed. The other form was not 
represented in the collection. 
Notes on Some Subjects Referred to in the December Bulletin. 
Euphrasia officinalis (xiii., p. 232) is by no means rare in 
Nova Scotia and the Island of Cape Breton. It usually grows 
on exposed hilly ground, on dry, gravelly or sandy knolls, or 
sunny slopes, where the grass is stunted. It abounds on many 
such spots on the hills overlooking Bedford Basin, the large sheet 
of water into which Halifax Harbor opens out at its upper or 
northern end; also on the hills around Sydney Harbor, Cape 
Breton, and in many other places in this and neighboring Prov- 
inces. As in Britain, it is here confined mostly to localities not 
far from the seashore. In the Manual Dr. Gray speaks of the 
American form as “a dwarf variety, with very small flowers,” 
and in the Synoptical Flora, the Maine and Canada plant is 
treated as a European introduction—the indigenous form of the 
White Mountains being referred to the variety 7a¢arica, under 
which De Candolle, in the Prodromus, includes the eastern 
European and Asiatic plant. I know of no reason for regarding 
our common Canadian form otherwise than as indigenous. It is 
possible that stray introduced plants may occur occasionally, for 
a few days ago a specimen was brought me to name as large as 
any I have seen in England, and with the robust look of the 
English plant. 
Alchemitlla vulgaris, also noticed on same page of BULLETIN, 
in an editorial note, was first observed at Lucyfield, Halifax 
County, in the summer of 1864. There is but one patch, which 
I have seen in flower during every subsequent season; but it 
does not spread. Botanists here have not noticed it elsewhere. 
It would consequently be of interest to note the “ roadside” 
localities more specifically in a future number of the BULLETIN. 
The Alchemilla is an introduced plant of European origin (as 
you state); and I had not regarded the one patch found in 1864 
