400 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [DeC. 



to retain its characters under cultivation, (vide " English Flora.") 

 Whether we have more than one form of M. ccespitosa cannot be 

 determined without a larger series of specimens from different 

 localities; but hitherto I have met with nothing like the M. 

 strigiUosa or M. repens of Europe, which may be looked upon as 

 intermediate forms, and are regarded by some as belonging 

 properly to 31. palustris. The right of M. ccespitosa to rank as 

 a distinct species has long been recognized by the best botanists 

 of Europe, and a careful comparison of our plant with the 

 European leaves no room for doubt as to their identity. 



M. palustris Withering. Stem freely creeping and rooting at 

 the base, then ascending ; from 6 to 12 inches long; thick, angu- 

 lar, branched ; rough, with spreading hairs ; prominent ribs or 

 wings run down the stem from the margins and mid-ribs of the 

 leaves. Leaves all sessile, clasping decurrent, oblong-lanceolate, 

 or linear-oblong or linear-lanceolate, usually ligulate. rarely 

 spathulate, (the lower half of the lamina usually broader than the 

 upper,) blunt at the apex ; rough, with very short (mostly 

 appressed) hairs or hair-points ; foliage always of a uniform bright 

 green color. Flowers large ; corolla bright sky-blue, with a white 

 circle surrounding a prominent raised yellow ring or eye; the 

 horizontal limb of the corolla much longer than the tube ; corol- 

 line divisions almost overlapping and slightly emarginate ; calyx 

 more than half as long as its pedicel ; cleft nearly half way down 

 into five segments, whieh are triangular-ovate ; rough, with very 

 short appressed bristles ; peduncle and pedicels, with appressed 

 hairs. Flowers in June and succeeding months, remaining long 

 in blossom, partly from the continuous branching of the stem and 

 successive production of new racemes in the axils, and partly 

 from the production of fresh flowering shoots from the creeping 

 base of the stem. 



Myosotis palustris, Withering. "Arrangement of British 

 Plants," vol. ii., p. 225; Smith, "English Flora;" Babington, 

 "Manual of Botany;" Hooker & Arnott, "British Flora;" A. 

 Gray, "Man. Bot.," 5th ed., p. 3()4 (exclude var. laxa.) — Kegel 

 & Herder. 



Not M. palustris Torrey. " Flora of New York State " 



This species grows in muddy spots by the margins of streams, 

 usually on black mud, and in places Uable to inundation ; Sack, 

 vilie River and its tributaries, N.S. ; Sydney, Cape Breton ; also 

 near Halifax, G.L. ; Boyne Cottage, Studley Road; W. L. 



