THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 129 



Herbarium except those collected by Philippi himself at the 

 original place of discovery — the island of Quinquina on the 

 coast of Chile. This is probably its first appearance at any 

 station in the United States. 



Another interesting grass immigrant, also determined by 

 Mrs. Chase, appeared in great abundance about some old 

 brick building's in the business district of Salem, Oregon, in 

 the early summer of 1917, although no record of its previous 

 occurrence in this State seems to exist. This is Scleropoa 

 rigida Griseb — a grass of Southern Europe whose occurrence 

 in the United States seems to have been previously confined 

 to ballast-grounds about the Southern and Eastern ports. 

 How it arrived at a point so far inland as Salem can only be 

 conjectured. So far as I can discover, the owners of the ad- 

 jacent buildings have not been in the habit of receiving or 

 storing foreign goods. A zealous street-commissioner mowed 

 down the entire crop after it had matured ; but we are hoping 

 that it will reappear next season. 



THE PURPLE WATER AVENS 

 By Lucina Haynes Lombard. 



/"CONSPICUOUS among the denizens of lowland runs is 

 ^^ the graceful purple avens (Geum rivale), whose creep- 

 ing root-stock, of a pinkish chocolate brown, curiously scarred, 

 interlaces the ground like the rhizomes of witch grass, so 

 thickly do the plants grow. The root-stocks were steeped by 

 the early settlers and when the decoction was sweetened and 

 creamed, it was said to be better than chocolate, having the 

 wild tang of the free open about it and being withal a pleasant 

 and bracing drink. This wild chocolate, as the settlers called 



