72 LAWSON: EKVISION OF THE 



common. — B. Billing's Jr. Anticosti, July, 1861. — Verrill. (xaspé Basiu, south side, June 2nd, 

 1862.— Dr. J. Bell. Windsor, N.S.— A'o/. Hoic. Nicolet, Montreal ; St. Valentine, P.Q. ; 

 Kingston and Port Eobinson, Ont. — Dr. P. W. Maclagan, Herb. Edin. Belleville, borders of 

 swamps, under evergreens. — Macoun. Terrebonne and L'Islet. — Prommcher. Rare in the 

 interior of the western country, certainly not about Lake Winnipeg. — Barnston. Abundant 

 from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to the Rocky Moiiutains. — Macoun. Manitoba House, 

 June 14th, 1881 ; Belleville, Ont., June 10th, l'èl^.— Macoun, in Herb. Cauad. Survey. St. 

 Anne des Monts, P.Q., June 12th, imi.— Porter. Sitka and Uualaschka.— Torr. Sç Gr. 

 Sitka. — Rothrock. In Siberia, in shady woods, with Oxalis and Circcea. — Linnœus. Arctic 

 Asia, South G-reenland, N. Europe, N. and N. E. Asia, and N. W. and N. E. America. — Hook. 

 /., Arct. PI. Not British. 



Introduced to English gardens by the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1782. — Aiion /., 

 Hort. Kew., 1. c. 



This plant is very regular in its period of flowering, and well adapted to indicate the 

 forwardness of the spring season As observed by Prof Fowler, at Bass River, New 

 Brunswick, it came into flower in the several years, at the following dates, showing a 

 range of difference of four days only in the four years : — 



1861. May 24th. I 1869. May 26th. 



1868. May 2tth. ! 18t0. May 28th. 



Under the name of " Gold Thread," which it has obtained on account of the rich 

 yellow colour of its roots, this plant is collected and commonly sold in the public markets 

 as a medicinal herb. Large quantities are exported from Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, 

 to the United States. 



2.— COPTIS ASPLENÏFOLIA, SalisbwiJ. 



Stem short, leaves bipinnate, ternately divided, the leaflets incisely lobed and 

 toothed, radical leaves long-stalked. Peduncle branched, bearing usually 2 flowers. Petals 

 long and narrow, dilated and cucullate about the middle, erect-spreading, longer than the 

 strongly reflexed sepals. Carpels about 0, horizontal, on pedicels of their own length, half 

 an inch long, with longitudinal veins, ventrally swollen, straight on back with slightly 

 recurved tip and obsolete beak. Plant glabrous, with minute hair-bases on stem and leaves. 



Coptis asplenifolia. Salisbury, Trans. Linn. Soc, VHI., p. 306. Pursh, FL, IL, p. 391. 

 DC. Syst. Nat., I., p. 322. Prodromirs, I., p. 47. Hook., Fl. Bor.-Am., I., p. 23, t, 11 (excl. 

 syu), (asplenioides in note.) Ledeb., Fl. Rossica, I., p. 53. Torr. & Gr., Fl. N. A., I., p. 28. 

 Watson, Bibl. Index, p. 12. Macoun, Cat., No. 58. 



Tlialiclrum Japonicum, Thunberg, included among the " Thalictra dubia atit non satis 

 nota," by DeCandolle, in Syst. Nat., was referred in Flora Bor.-Am. to this species, but 

 Sir Joseph Hooker has kindly responded to my enquiries (letter, Aug. 11th, 1884) by 

 informing me that the Japanese plant is Coptis trachypetala, Sieb. & Zucc, and that C 

 asplenifolia, Salisb., does not occur in Japan. 



North-west coast of N. America. — Menzies, Douglas. Observatory Inlet. — Scouler. 

 Rich woods. Queen Charlotte Islands, July 18th, 1878. — Dr. G. M. Dawson, in Herb; Canad. 

 Survey. Rich woods, New Westminster, B.C. — Macoun. Sitka. — T. Sc G., Rothrock. 



In Dr. Dawson's specimens the carpels are much longer than in Hooker's figure in the 

 Flora Boreali- Americana. 



