86 
from him specimens reached H. Cosson of Paris, one of which 
came into the hands of Dr. Gray and is now at Cambridge. 
Later, it was found by Prof. Harvey in Arkansas. And, last of 
all, I had the good fortune to discover it not long since amongst 
unnamed species in the herbarium of Mr. E. A. Rau of Bethlehem, 
Pa. The specimens, five in number, were brought by his cousin, 
Mr. Robert Rau, from Moraviantown, Canada, eighty miles west 
of Niagara Falls. 
Of the other plants gathered at the little lake, the most note- 
worthy are Funcus pelocarpus (known before as existing in Penn- 
sylvania in a single bog of Monroe County), Eleocharis olivacea 
(new to the State) and, strangest of all, an Artemisia which closely 
resembles the European A. Pontica, but cannot be determined 
positively for lack of flowers. A foot or less in height, it covers 
a space of several rods square on the bank of the lake shore, in 
the heart.of the wilderness, remote from fields, farm-houses and 
roads of any kind. How it was ever carried to such an out-of- 
the-way spot is a problem very hard to solve. The same thing, 
in the same condition, was collected by me, some years ago, on 
an embankment of the Belvidere and Delaware Railroad below 
Frenchtown, N. J., but its occurrence there can easily be account- 
ed for. : THos. C. PORTER. 
Botanical Notes. 
Is Solidago serotina, Ait. var. gigantea, A. Gray, a Hybrid ? 
During the autumn, I collected seeds of Solidago serotina, Ait. 
var. gigantea, A. Gray, near Ithaca. In examining them with a 
view to selecting some of them to plant, they were all found to 
be infertile. The achenia were, to all external appearances, per- 
fectly developed, but no embryo was found in any of them. So 
far as it goes this may be evidence of this variety being a cross 
between two other species, although it by no means proves it to 
be so. The plant is intermediate between S. serotina, Ait. 
and S. Canadensis, L. I have carefully examined specimens of 
both species and have failed to detect any character in the vari- 
_ ety which may not be found in one of the species. Moreover, 
both of the species grow with the variety. To prove by direct 
crossing that one species crossed with the other will produce the 
variety, would be the nen way in which to prove absolutely 
