112 The Ottawa Naturalist. . [Sept. 



Geum rivale, Spathyema jfetidum and Caltha parnassifolia* in 

 a particularly tall and robust form being among the largest. 

 In one place only I saw a colony of Smilacina trifolia, this just 

 past flowering; and there were observed several groups of 

 Clintonia borealis, some of the plants still in flower ; but Uni- 

 folium canadense was almost everywhere, as also Trientalis 

 americana. Naumburgia thyrsi fora was frequent, also larger 

 than I am used to seeing it, but Comarum palustre was not seen, 

 neither Menyanihes. No cranberry was seen, or any orchids 

 whatsoever. In these particulars this Ontario larch swamp was 

 in marked contrast with those I had become acquainted with in 

 regions lying to the westward of Lake Michigan. 



On my first entrance to the swamp I was delighted by the 

 sight of a large decaying stump beautifully mantled with 

 Limicea borealis in full bloom. I did not again meet with the 

 plant in this bog, or even in the Strathroy district anywhere. 



On account of my deep interest in northern violets I re- 

 gretted the lateness of my arrival in western Ontario, for I 

 knew that by the middle of June all the earher species would have 

 passed their season of petaliferous flowering. In the caricetum 

 border of this marsh I observed what seemed to be V. cucullata, 

 growing as usual among the tufts of hydrophile sedges, but no 

 flowers were seen. It was quite too late for them. At this 

 moment, however, and scarcely two rods away, though now 

 hidden from view by the trees and shrubbery intervening, there 

 was blooming beautifully and almost copiously my V. priono- 

 sepala, as I shortly discovered. Within this sparsely wooded 

 and bushy portion of the marsh all sorts of very wet spaces not 

 occupied bv larger herbaceous plants were quite filled with the 

 combination of a small galium, a slender stellaria, and this 

 particular violet, and there was no other violet associated with 

 it. This was the first time I had seen the species growing; at 

 least the first time since my publication of it. I had described 

 it from very excellent herbarium specimens, supplemented by 

 full, intelligible and most satisfactory notes, all supplied by 

 valued correspondents.! As I now revert to my original 

 account of this fine species, it is something of a gratification to 

 read how perfectly, even if mainly by the light of the mere dried 

 specimens, I had divined the nature of this plant's habita.t as 

 compared with that of V. cucullata. The plants of V. priono- 



*During some years past I have been convinced that we have no Caltha palustris in 

 North America; and that our plant is specifically distinct from the European type of the 

 genus was seen by Rafinesque more than a hundred years since. It was in 1807 that he 

 published our plant as C. parnassifolia, indicating, among other characters the important 

 one of its elliptic sepals. Those of the Old World plant are broadly round-obvate. 



tViOLA PRIONOSEPALA, Greene, Pittonia, V. 99 (1902). 



