192 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



ing tiie full type series of specimens ; for if these Avere known to the 

 author, and deemed S. cordata in 1857, it would naturally be supposed 

 that N. balmmifera would be left where it was placed by Hooker, 

 even if the same plant were on another page described as a new spe- 

 cies. It is clear that in restoring Barratt's n.ame we are simply doing 

 what Prof. Andersson would, or should, have done had not this over 

 sight occurred. 



P. S. I have just received a letter i'rom Mr Pringle announcing 

 the discovery of 6'. balmmifera in the White Mountains ; not, how- 

 ever, on the banks of the xVmmonoosuc. wliere search was lirst made 

 in vain, but on the Saco, where specimens were collected June lotii. 

 having immature fertile aments and the characteristic Amelanchier- 

 like leaves. — ^l. S. Bebb. 



Carex comosa, Boott. — On the 5th of July I collected, in the edge 

 of the salt meadows, near Newark, N. J., a single specimen of a re- 

 markable abnormal form of Carex comosa. The upper part of the culm 

 is very slender, and bears three sessile spikes, each subtended by a 

 long, very slender bract. Spikes four to eight inches apart, all pis- 

 tillate excep't at the apex, where they have empty staminate scales. 

 Upper spike loosely compound, its divisions sessile, and subtended 

 by long (some 1^ inches) bristle shaped l)racts, these becoming suc- 

 cessively shorter, as their spikelets decrease in size, until they pass 

 into the ordinary scales of the spike. — H. H. Rusby. 



PoTAMOGETON. — By the will of the late Dr. J. W. Robbins, of Ux- 

 bridge, Mass.. all his collections of the genus Potamogeton have been 

 sent to Rev. Thos. Morong, of Ashland, Mass., for arrangement and 

 distribution. Mr. Morong is preparing not only to do this but pro- 

 poses to do some work of revision. As this will be of great use we 

 would urge that botanists over the country send Mr. Morong speci- 

 mens of the species for examination, especially any unusual forms, 

 as a good deal of new material is already in hand for a general revis- 

 ion of the genus — J. M. C. 



Dichogamy in Rhododendron maximim. — The writer does not know 

 whether the above fact has been recorded or not, but it may be news 

 to some. It was noticed this j^ear in a study of the above species 

 that the stamens mature first and are ready to shed their pollen be- 

 fore the pistil is even stigmatic. After a while the pistils mature 

 and receive their pollen from other flowers through the agency of in- 

 sects.— J. M. C. 



