314 
Orp. LYCOGALACEAE. 
86. Lycogala miniatum Pers =L. epidendrum List. Very com- 
mon. Cumberland (Blake). Rangely (Rex.). Orono (Harvey). 
On a new Species of Scrophularia hitherto confounded with 
S$. Marylandica. 
- By Evucene P. BICKNELL. 
Two totally distinct species of Scrophularia are included under 
the name Serophularia Marylandica, the common Figwort of the 
Eastern States. The true S. Marylandica is a \ate-flowering plant; 
beginning to bloom in the neighborhood of New York from the 
second to the fourth week of July, and continuing to bear flowers 
into late September or even October. The other species blooms 
in the spring and early summer—from about the middle of May 
until late June or early July. Its latest flowers are gone long be- 
. fore the earliest of S. Marylandica appear.* 
It is not a little remarkable that this very noteworthy differ- 
ence in the flowering-periods of these common plants should have 
remained so long undetected, and the fact readily explains why 
only a single species has been recognized; for, so close is the re- 
semblance between these two figworts that, were their flowering 
periods identical, their distinctness would scarcely have been sus- 
pected. The case affords a striking illustration of extremely close 
general resemblance between species fundamentally distinct. 
That I am not wrong in thus characterizing these plants will, 
I think, sufficiently appear from a comparison of their roots alone . 
which exhibit notable differences both in morphology and in 
anatomical structure. It is to be especially remarked, also, that 
each plant has a characteristic odor distinctly different from that 
of the other. 
It is a matter of curious interest now to recall the long-exist- 
ing differences of opinion as to whether our S. Marylandica, — 
* Observations made the present season show that this general rule is not 
without exceptions. On July 7th, among an abundant growth of the early-flowering 
species on a shaded northern slope, three belated flowers were found; the same day 
some plants of S. Marylandica which had strayed from the woods into damp open | 
ground showed their first flowers, 
