166 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Mar. 



In the Geological Survey herbarium of Ottawa there is 

 a specimen collected by Mr. J. M. Macoun at "Billings' Bush 

 near Ottawa, May 18th, 1898," which puzzled the collector. 

 It is mounted as No. 18761 with two specimens labelled V. 

 septentrionalis Greene. The collector, however, was in doubt 

 whether it should be referred to V. septentrionalis, and therefore 

 wrote on one side of the specimen " F. cuctillata ?" In other words, 

 the collector was in doubt as to whether it should be considered 

 a form of V. cucullata or whether it should be referred to V. 

 septentrionalis. In some respects it shows the characters of 

 vone of these species, in others it comes close to the other one. 



There is no dotibt, however, that the specimen in question 

 represents a true hybrid between the species mentioned. 

 The authors have had the opportunity to revisit the locality 

 and have observed and collected many specimens of the hybrid, 

 _growing with their parent species. 



V. cucullata x septentrionalis, as it occurs in the vicinity 

 of Ottawa, reminds one at a superficial glance, very much of 

 V. cucullata. It 'iorms dense and very vigorous bunches and 

 develops an abundance of beautiful sky-blue flowers which, 

 like those of V. cucullata are borne on pedicels much surpassing 

 the leaves and which, therefore, are very conspicuous. The 

 exposed position of the flowers is, however, not the only thing 

 which makes them so conspicuous. They are, in addition to 

 being numerous and of a very rich colour, surprisingly large, 

 in fact much larger than the flowers of either V. cucullata 

 or V. septentrionalis. 



A closer examination of the specimens collected reveals 

 the fact that as far as their morphological characters are con- 

 cerned, they represent undoubted itermediates between V. 

 cucullata and V. septentrionalis. It is true that their pedicels 

 are much longer than those of V. septentrionalis, but on the 

 other hand they are decidedly shorter than those of V. 

 cucullata and though soft and w^eak, are not slender 

 as is the case with the pedicels of V. cucullata. The 

 herbage of the hybrid plants differs from that of the glabrous 

 V. cucullata in being very sparsely and obscurely hirtellous- 

 hairy, and b}^ the very same character from V. septentrionalis, 

 which is rather conspicuously hairy, especially on the petioles. 



The characters of the sepals in the hybrid are also inter- 

 mediate between those of the parent species. In V. cucullata 

 the sepals are perfectly glabrous, i.e., are not at all ciliolated 



