THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 171 



han was abundant in some spots. A species of veronica, very much 

 like Hederifolia, was also very widely diffused, and the dwarf 

 maple Acer spicatiim we found very prevalent among rocky debris 

 on the flats of the Irvine and Grand River, where also the dog's bane 

 shrub was common ; and we were also shown a rare species of 

 primula {P. Mistassinaca), that had been found growing on the river 

 flats, by Col. Clarke, of Elora. 



In a cedar swamp bordering the same stream, the large purple 

 cypripedium was just coming in flower, and that peculiar shrub 

 which so frequently puzzles the inexperienced botanist, /. e., the 

 alder leaved buckthorn, {J^hamnus alnifolia\ was as abundant as it 

 is in some of the bogs of Brant county ; although this shrub is 

 classed in Polypetalae, in this particular species the petals are 

 wanting ! and the branches are thornless ! We also noticed a 

 variety of Antennaria, nearly like, but not quite, A. Margatitacea, 

 or pearly everlasting flower, the difference was in the remarkable 

 angles of the stem and peduncles. In Brant and Oxford counties 

 that pretty adventurer, the Snowy Campion {Sile?ie injlata), has 

 only begun to put in an appearance on some of the new railway 

 cuttings, but it is a troublesome weed in the turnip fields about 

 Elora, and although the blue iris {Iris versicolor), which so lavishly 

 adorns the boggy spots in Burford and Brantford townships, and 

 the dense growths of the cerulean vervain ( Verbena hastata), which 

 so attracts the eye in ill-drained hollows in Oxford county-^are 

 absent in these parts. A number of less showy interlopers are 

 making good headway as the white melilot {Melilotus alba), which 

 is becoming abundent in many places on the railway track about 

 Fergus, and occasionally, that capparid, from the gravelly Lake Erie 

 shore {Folanisia graveolens), and also the tufted vetch ( Vicium 

 ctacca), and we were also informed that the yellow ox-eye daisy, 

 {Rudbeckia hirta), was, in many places, proving troublesome. 



Whilst rambling late in the afternoon with a friend along the 

 wooded banks of the Grand River, below Elora, our attention was 

 called to the continuous (with slight intermissions) song of a scarlet 

 tanager. The bird was perched on the very highest branch of a 

 tall maple tree, and, singular to relate, that was the only branch on 

 the tree that was destitute of leaves ; the singer kept turning slightly 

 from side to side, with his glistening red breast facing the declining 

 sun, as if showing off, with fuller effect, the gorgeous radiance of his 



