THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 37 



year the Blackberry woods, situated a mile away, were also 

 carefully and systematically examined by two careful ob- 

 servers, and not a single plant of squirrel-corn was found, al- 

 though the Dutchman's breeches was abundant. The flowers 

 of the two species are so unlike that they may be recognized 

 without hesitation at a distance of twenty feet, or even more. 

 It would indeed be surprising if the squirrel-corn had been 

 overlooked. Considering all the evidence, we are probably 

 correct in concluding that for several successive years squirrel- 

 corn did not bloom in this vicinity- 



But this spring almost the reverse is true. In the Black- 

 berry woods there is far more squirrel-corn than Dutchman's 

 breeches. In the Brownfield woods both are very abundant, 

 and one is as common as the other. One can seldom find a 

 colony of one species without the other intermixed, or at least 

 growing within a few feet. 



How shall we explain it? Surely it is not a new arrival 

 in tlie woods, for its means of dissemination are slow, there 

 is no near source of supply and it has appeared in such great 

 numbers at once. Possibly it has been dormant in the 

 ground and has just this year completed the dormant period. 

 But, if so, it is strange that the dormant period of all the plants 

 should end at the same time. One would expect ratlier to 

 find a part of them completing their dormant stage and bloom- 

 ing each year, while all the evidence shows that no plants at 

 all bloomed last year or for several years past. The writer 

 has personally no explanation to offer but makes the mere 

 sviggestion the squirrel-corn may have produced leaves alone 

 for a number of years. In this form it would escape notice, 

 for the leaves of squirrel-corn and Dutchman's breeches are 

 indistinguishable. Possibly the exceedingly cold spring of 

 1907, or the very mild winter jnust ended, or some other 

 climatic condition has been exceptionably favorable to squirrel- 

 corn, and called forth the display of flowers this season. If 



