165 



detected by Mr. S. T. Kelsey, about a month ago, on Grandfather 

 Mountain, Caldwell Co., N. C, and now, 23d of May, hesends 

 vouchers in the form of beautiful clusters of fresh flowers. He 

 writes: " It grows just everywhere in clumps and patches on the 

 southern and southeastern slopes, at 4,500 to 5,500 feet elevation, 

 but most abundant and vigorous in moist stations, and is associ- 

 ated with Rkododendron maximum, R, Catawbiense and Kalmla 

 latifolia. The locality is only two or three miles from Linville/' 



This ground has been hunted over by famous botanists of old. 

 Both Michaux and Fraser knew Grandfather in the last century, 

 and Lyon and Curtis in the early part of the present one. Dr. 

 Gray, in a letter to Sir William Hooker, has given an account of 

 his predecessors in its exploration, and of his own researches into 

 its Flora. A land made classic by such associations, and rich in 

 numerous rare, and even in some endemic plants, has attracted 

 many herbourizing lesser botanists; but all this time Rhododen- 

 dron Vaseyi has concealed itself even better than Its less showy 

 neighbor Shortia. 



It will be remembered by those who had the opportunity to 

 furnish him specimens, how delighted was Dr. Gray to find an 

 American true Azalea with a rotate- campanulate corolla, which 

 even proved upon better examination to be bilabiately irregular. 

 He considered it one of the most interesting of the now very 



numerous cases of remarkable relationship betw^een the Chino- - 

 Japanese and the AlJeghanian floras. 



The present flowers are true to the amended description in 

 the Gazette. They are bright purple, varying to pinkish-white, 

 and scentless. The shrub is IQ to 15 feet high and is nearest in 

 ^^abit to Rhododendron calendnlaceum, Mr. Kelsey states that it 

 is easily transplanted, adapts itself readily to cultivation, and is 

 already an ornamental bush in many house-yards at Highlands, 

 where it flowers profusely before any leaves appear. 



Baltimore, Md. John Donnell Smith. 



Aquilegia CanaderJs, L., var. flaviflora (Tenney), Britton. 



An account of a yellow variety oi Aquilegia Canadensis in the 

 April Bulletin suggests calling attention to the following in 

 the Flora of Essex County, Mass. (Essex Institute Bulletin, 1880). 



