30 AXTEl^JNARIA PLANTAGINIFOLIA. MOUSE-EAR EVERLASTING. 



in the previous year, or on the 19th of April, thus reducing the 

 difference in time between the flowering periods of the two to 

 Uttle more than two weeks. But the most interesting obser- 

 vation was made in 1S68, when the Dog's-Tooth Violet was in 

 bloom on the 28th of March, and the Everlasting on the 

 ist of April. We see from all this that, while in 1864 the 

 difference in time between the two was nearly a month, it was 

 only a few days in 1868, and furthermore, that the opening day 

 of the Dog's-Tooth Violet remained almost stationary (March 

 29, April 2, March 28), while the Mouse-Ear Everlasting varied 

 from the 27th to the ist of April. The explanation of this 

 curious fact is, no doubt, to be found in the occurrence of a few 

 warn: days in March, which may make all the difference. As 

 the Dog's-Tooth Violet and the Everlasting open shortly after 

 one another, providing that the temperature remains stationary, 

 it follows that the second must gain on the first if a few very 

 warm days happen to succeed the opening day of the Violet, 

 while the Everlasting must necessarily be retarded in case cold 

 weather sets in. We may conclude, tlierefore, that the forward- 

 ness of any one season cannot be predicated upon the day of 

 opening of the early-flowering plants. Such facts only show 

 that there may have been a few warm days about the time of 

 blooming. 



Although, as already observed, our plant is not a particularly 

 showy one, it is yet one of those which improve on acquaintance. 

 It does not let us into its secrets all at once, bat reserves some 

 of them for future occasions. One of the most interesting fea- 

 tures of the genus to which it belongs is that it is dioecious, or 

 in other words, that the male flowers are on one plant and the 

 female flowers on another, — an arrangement which is far from 

 being common in the allied plants of the asteraceous or com- 

 posite class. In the genus Gnaphalium, for instance, to which 

 our plant is nearly related, and with which it was, in fact, classed 

 by the older botanists, the central flowers in each head are per- 

 fect or hermaphrodite, that is to say, contain both stamens and 



