BRIEFER ARTICLES. 
A red-seeded dandelion in New England.—In June, 1892, my atten- 
tion was called, by Mr. Chas. G. Atkins of East Orland, Maine, to a 
red-seeded dandelion, which grows abundantly in northwestern Han- 
cock county. Mr. Atkins noted that the red seed were invariably as- 
sociated with sparse foliage, and deeply cut leaves, and that the outer 
involucral bracts were not reflexed as in the ordinary Taraxacum. 
The color of the flowers, too, is a striking character as evidenced by 
Mr. Atkins’s note, “where the two sorts were intermingled in a field 
I could (at a distance of several rods) detect the red-seeded sort by 
the brighter yellow of the flowers.” 
In May, 1894, Mr. N. T. Kidder, and others interested in the Flora 
of the Boston Metropolitan Parks, found the same form growing 
about the waterfall on Beaver Brook, at Waverly, Mass., and later the 
author detected it in some quantity with Cinna pendula, Eatonia 
Pennsylvanica, and Woodsia IIvensis, in rocky woods near Pease Pond 
in Wilton, Maine. 
During the present season it has been found in great abundance 
about Cambridge, Mass. Messrs. Emile F. Williams, Alfred S. Hig- © 
gins and the author have found it plentiful in dry fields about Win- 
chester, Mass., and in great abundance on the west ledges and cliffs in 
“Shaker Glen,” East Lexington. In “Shaker Glen” the plant is as- 
sociated with Anemonella thalictroides, Aquilegia Canadensis, Car- 
damine rhomboidea, Oryzopsis asperifolia, Adiantum pedatum, 
Cystopteris fragilis, and other species which point to the possibility 
that the Taraxacum is indigenous. Ina recent visit to Kennebunk- 
port, Maine, Mr. Warren H. Manning and the author found the plant 
everywhere on the ledges, both on the main land and on the islands 
off Cape Porpoise. 
In all these stations no forms have been detected which show any 
Intergradation with Taraxacum officinale, and until such forms may 
be found it seems desirable to follow DeCandolle, Liebmann and 
others in considering this a distinct species, rather than to give it var- 
ietal rank as has been done by Koch, Hooker, and Karsten. The fol- 
lowing description and notes will summarise the points of distinction 
already suggested. 
TARAXACUM ERYTHROSPERMUM Andrz. in Bess. Fl. Podal. cont. 
Il. n. 1586. (Z: officinale Weber, var. glaucescens Koch). Leaves dull 
green, glabrous, deeply runcinate-pinnatifid or even pinnately divided, 
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