558 FLORA OF McNAB's ISLAND, HALIFAX, N. S. — BARBOUR. 



Ruhlacece. 



Houstonia cwrulea. Bluets. — Quite one of the commonest 

 earlier flowers of the season. 1500 specimens examined, mainly 

 collected o'n McN'ab's Island, but some on the mainland in this 

 instance. 



There is not much variation in the outer whorls of the 

 flower ; flowers with six instead of four petals were met with in 

 a couple of dozen instances, and four or five had as many as 

 seven. 



The one great variation I noticed was see'n in the length of 

 the style and the number of the stigmas. In the floras, the 

 flower is described as having one style and two stigmas. I^Tow I 

 have found a heterogony of styles in these flowers. One variety 

 has a long style with two stigmas ; the second variety has a short 

 style and most usually one stigma. The former I hold to be the 

 one usually described in our books on flora. 



The latter I have ventured to distinguish from it by giving 

 it a new name — Houstonia coeruJea var. Piersii — after your 

 esteemed secretary, Mr. H. Piers, who has aided me in so many 

 ways in this kind of work. 



The descriptio'a, therefore, of the style in this new variety 

 may be said to be as follows : — Style — Short, not longer than 

 three-quarters, at most, of the length of the corolla tube. 

 Stigma — Single nearly always, but two may be present which 

 are partially united half way up their dorsal aspects. 



This new variety I have found is based on the fact that 

 practically one-third of the flowers examined ]U'esented these 

 variations. They arise, too, not quite irregularly, for tufts of 

 flowers occur in which all the flowers consist of one or other 

 variety quite separate from those large patches where both 

 kinds mav be found indiscriminatelv. 



