BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 381 
brought much observation to bear upon the point, I could never 
perceive any sensible distinction betwixt the tone or colouring, as 
a painter would say, of an American and European sky, or could 
detect any peculiarity in the varying aspect of the one which was 
not as much a property of the other. 
August 20th. Left Batsto after breakfast for Quaker Bridge, 
a few miles further on, through a country similar to that traversed- 
yesterday. The plants remarked growing about the former place 
were such as had been previously observed on our way thither in 
the morning, and on reaching the latter we found, to our great 
annoyance, much of our best botanizing ground under water, and 
of course inaccessible. Our first object was to secure the rare 
Schizea pusilla, which Mr. James, who had gathered it here on a 
former occasion, quickly pointed out to my admiring gaze, in 
half-swampy grounds, just over the bridge, on the further side 
from the hotel, on the right hand, and close by and below the 
road, in plenty. This curious little Fern is said to grow in New- 
foundland, and a nearly allied species (S. australis) in the Falkland 
Islands ; these with the present station are the only ones known 
as yet for the genus. From the overflowed state of the swamp, 
we made but few additions to our list of yesterday, and many 
summer plants were already out of flower. Of those we did collect, 
I regret to say my notes have been lost. Narthecium americanum 
was abundant on the edge of the swamp, and is probably only a 
slight variety of JV. ossifragum. The capsules have the same 
brick-red colour, which I find bleaches by mere keeping, to nearly 
white. Æriocaulon decangulare, a fine species, often two feet high, 
and growing immersed, was also plentiful here; whilst a terres- 
trial species of Bladderwort (Utricularia cornuta), with erect fili- 
form stems and small yellow flowers, occupied the damp sandy 
margins of the bog. Cyperus mariscoides was abundant in damp 
ground near the hotel, by which grew Chenopodium anthelminti- 
cum and C. Botrys, both probably naturalized. The hotel, a 
wooden building of pine boards, though homely, was clean, and 
overcast, with the exception of one partially fair, and another entirely clear day; on 
the remainder there was scarcely a gleam of sunshine. 
