172 Rhodora [September 



Road, August, 1 1912, Femald, Long & St. John, nos. 7299, 7300. 

 Maine: in disintegrated volcanic rock, Haystack Mountain, Aroos- 

 took Co., July 11, 1902, Williams, Collins & Femald; shore of Rowe 

 Pond, Pleasant Ridge, Somerset Co., September 10, 1909, J. F. 

 Collins; near summit of hill with coast-survey tower, Cutler, July 7, 

 1902, Kennedy, Williams, Collins & Femald; Sprague's Neck, Cutler, 

 August 11, 1902, Kate Furbish. New Hampshire: Endicott Farm, 

 Shelburne, July 4, 1914, W. Deane; roadside, Randolph, August 28, 

 1914, Pease, no. 16,298; near Glen House, Pinkham Notch, July 28, 

 1921, T. W. Edmonson, no. 5321. 



When he first published Betula caerulea-grandis (May 7, 1904) 

 Blanchard also put forward B. caerulea, introducing the two with the 

 phrase: "The writer has found and here names and describes two 

 new species of white birch." This first number of Betula was re- 

 ceived at the Gray Herbarium on May 10, 1904. Almost immediately 

 (on May 13) Blanchard issued in the Vermont Phoenix a popular 

 account of his discoveries and reprinted this account " without change 

 of type" as Betula, i. no. 2. In this second account he says "The 

 blue birch, as I have said, presents two well-marked forms .... 

 As these birches are without names I propose to call the smaller one 

 Betula caerulea and the larger one Betula caerulea variety grandis." 

 This paper was received at the Gray Herbarium May 24 but, that 

 Blanchard himself did not believe the larger-fruited tree to be really 

 a variety of B. caerulea, is indicated by his annotations on the two 

 copies sent, and on additional copies sent at the same time of Betula, 

 no. 1. On the two copies of no. 2, in which B. caerulea, var. grandis 

 was published as a variety, Blanchard had written in red ink; "Wise 

 editor helped spoil" and "Spoiled by wise editor," while on the 

 copies of no. 1 sent at the same time he wrote against the phrase 

 "two new species;" "I stand by this" and "By this I stand now." 

 It is thus clear that, although on second thought Blanchard wavered, on 

 third thought he regarded the two as species as he had originally done. 

 The name B. caerulea, var. Blanchardi (1905), based upon the same 

 material as B. caerulea-grandis (1904) and B. caerulea, var. grandis 

 (1904), must be treated as a synonym. 



**Betula caerulea Blanchard, Betula, i. no. 1 (May 7, 1904); 

 Sargent, Man. Trees N. A. 201, fig. 168 (1905). Halifax Co.: dry 

 rocky thickets.. Dartmouth; wooded roadside, Armdale (Dutch 

 Village). 



At the latter station B. caerulea was associated with the abundant 

 B. caerulea-grandis and B. populifolia; at Dartmouth, only a few 

 miles away, it was with' at least B. populifolia; and at its Vermont 



