469 
had puzzled me the most in my first examination was an inter- 
‘mediate form bearing yellow flowers, with both naked and fringed 
or cut-toothed petals, H, blephariglotts being described in the 
books as having only white petals with naked margins. Of this 
intermediate form I found several examples mixed among the two 
species. This I now believe is a hybrid, and fully accounts for 
the apparent running together of the two. The real ci/aris and 
blephariglottis are perhaps sufficiently distinct to be regarded as 
separate species. The latter has somewhat smaller, pure white 
petals, a narrower, oblong tip, and flowers three or four days 
earlier than cé#aris In ciliaris the lip broadens in the middle and 
the corolla is of a deep yellow or orange tint. So far as size and 
habit, the margins of the petals and the fringe of the lip are con- 
cerned, scarcely any distinction between the two seems to exist, and 
they must be regarded as very closely related. The fact that they 
hybridize, if nothing else, would show this to be the case. 
In that article I also noticed a monstrous form of H. ciliaris, 
obtained by Mr. Henry Ogden in the vicinity of New York. I 
have now to mention still another irregularity of this species. 
Mrs: J.C: Wright, of Fairfield, Conn., sends us a proliferous form 
which has four additional racemes of flowers growing from the 
summit of the regular raceme. The plant is normal in other 
respects. 
COMMELINACE/E. 
Commelina communis, 1.., not noted in Gray’s Manual. Occurs 
extensively in and around the city of New York, and along the 
Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, from its mouth to the hills 
above Harrisburg. It may readily be distinguished from C. Vir- 
ginica, L., by its spathe, which is split to the base, and by its 
glabrous, or nearly glabrous, stem and leaves, and from C. nudt- 
jfiora, L., by its open spathe, generally much broader leaves and 
more robust habit, as well as by the much larger seeds of the ventral 
cell, which are rugose and deeply pitted instead of being merely 
reticulated as in C. nudiflora. This species is usually regarded as 
introduced, but as the writer found it this summer on the Susque- 
hanna, it has every appearance of being native. In this connec- 
tion, it is worthy of note that Linnzus gives its habitat as 
ss “America.” 
