line of the Rideau Canal, Canada West. 13 



season was too early for collecting aquatic plants. Menyanthes 

 trifoliata and Caltha palustris were sparingly in flower. Viola 

 cucullata and Viola blanda, both frequenting moist ground, were 

 abundant everywhere, and there is likewise a pubescent variety 

 of the former species on dry ground, the V. congener of some 

 authors. Four other violets were picked in various situations 

 around the village — V. rostrata, V. pubescens, V. canadensis and 

 V. Mullenbergii,the latter nearly allied to V. canina. A few stunted 

 trees of prickly ash, Zanthoxylon americanum, were observed 

 just coming into flower, and this with the Antennaria plantagi- 

 nifolia and Aspidium marginale nearly completes the list of my 

 evening's gatherings. The rock at Smith's Falls appears to be- 

 long to the same series as thatatBytown — a member of the Silurian 

 group. But a few miles further on, the primary rocks, granite, 

 &c, appear, and at the Rideau and Indian lakes give quite a new 

 character to the landscape. Several new plants likewise appear 

 at the " Isthmus " and at Davies's Locks which serve to unite two 

 of the lakes. Corydalis glauca, both here and at Kingston Mills, 

 seems to confine itself entirely to the granite, but the other spe- 

 cies here observed, e. g. Saxifraga virginiensis, Aquilegia cana- 

 densis, and the beautiful little Polygala paucifolia, are not so 

 particular. Here too I picked a species of Turritis which appears 

 to come nearest iopatula, though not entirely accordant with the 

 character of that species. The siliquse when I gathered it were 

 rather depending than patulous, but after being confined in the 

 vasculum for some hours they became nearly erect. It appears 

 to me quite possible that some of the species of this section, whose 

 characters depend very much on the direction of the seed-vessel, 

 may ultimately prove to be not really distinct. 



At Jones's Falls, where I remained upwards of an hour, the 

 most striking plant was Clematis verticillaris, a handsome 

 flowered species ascending the trees and rocks to a height of 

 twenty or thirty feet. On a bare clay bank I observed a violet not 

 elsewhere seen by me in Canada, which appears to be V. ovata 

 of DeCandolle, which Torrey and Gray make a variety of V. sa- 

 gittata. It presented a character unnoticed by these authors, 

 viz. having the peduncles (previously erect) closely prostrate after 

 flowering. A small variety of Cardamine hirsuta also grew there 

 which is the C. virginiana of some authors, and may perhaps be 

 a distinct species. Hippopha'e canadensis appears to have a 

 marked liking for the neighbourhood of waterfalls, this being the 

 third or fourth such situation in which I have seen it, and here 

 it grows in profusion along with Ribes Cynosbati and floridum, 

 a species nearly allied to our common black currant. One of 

 the few grasses in flower at this early season, Urachne asperifolia, 

 is rather a rare one, and the only other which I procured was 



