72 
line of separation. As the two are found growing in company at 
Forest Hill, in the southern border of Chicago, and where they 
are clearly distinct, I have had a good chance to observe them for 
several years in their native condition. I first met with the vari- 
ety in 1878, and have watched it more or less since. At that 
time it was not easy to refer this low or dwarf plant, broad leaved, 
green and early maturing, to 7vadescantia Virginica as described 
in the books, usually a much taller, smooth, narrow-leaved and 
glaucous plant, which kept on flowering throughout the summer. 
Still more than their different look, it was their early flowering 
and disappearance which particularly called attention to them. 
Rafinesque, in the species which he made out and gives in his 
_ “New Flora and Botany of North America,’ calls some “ vernal” 
and others “estival.”* This holds good between the two found 
here. Notes made in 1878 give the time of gathering as May 
30th. Those of 1880 state that hundreds were examined on June 
11th, and none were in flower, all having gone to seed. 7vades- 
caniia Virginica was then fairly in its season of bloom, only a few 
having passed that stage. May 12, 1894, a few of the low kind 
were found in flower; on the 21st they were in great abundance. 
At the latter date but three of the other form were found in flower 
after a long search. On June 19th half a dozen flowers of the 
low form were discovered after a search of an hour or more in 
spots where the plants were most numerous. The taller form was 
then in full bloom everywhere. The stems of the low form were 
mostly dead or dying, some lying flat on the ground. Their sea- 
son was virtually over. A number of plants of 7: Virginica were 
seen in flower August 16th. The last one observed was on Au-. 
gust 29th, except a single plant on October 2d, probably a case 
of flowering the second time. The broad leaved form behaves 
like a vernal plant, early in the season maturing its buds for the 
coming year, its aerial parts then disappearing, a process mostly 
completed by the last of June. . Some of the other form will have 
passed their floral season then, but others keep up the succession 
so that they are common or even abundant in July. I have as 
yet detected the low kind in but one locality, while the other 
grows in profusion wherever the conditions are suitable. 
*lic. p. 84 
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