141 



one leaflet at the expense of the others so that it serves for the 

 whole. In doing this it has not, as yet, taken on the ordinary 

 ways of simple leaves when the time comes to loose its hold upon 

 the vine. We might say that the leaf was still compound, with 

 a single leaflet, or " unifoliate " as is the term used with the lemon 

 and orange of the ordinary sorts, but not of Citrus trifoliata, 

 which is evidently compound. 



If we were to go far into phylogeny — perhaps beyond our 

 depths — it might be stated that the subject of our note had early 

 left the simple form of leaf, still adhered to by the grapes proper, 

 became fully compound, as are now its nearest to kin, and then 

 underwent a " degeneration," if this word is the one, and assumed 

 a type of foliage that might easily put it in the genus Vitis. 

 The stiff defoliated petioles, however, uphold its place with the 

 compound-leaved group — a position fully maintained by other 

 characteristics of the species. 



THE SPREADING OF SOLIDAGO SPECIOSA IN 

 THE VICINITY OF YONKERS, N. Y. 



By Mrs. John I. Northrop 



Previous to 1898, the only station known to me in this local- 

 ity for the above plant was on the crest of the hill south of Mt. 

 Hope Cemetery. This handsome goldenrod was always abun- 

 dant there in several old fields. In the fall of 1898, I noticed that 

 i't was spreading towards the southwest in the direction of the 

 Hudson, as a number of plants were seen on a hillside about a 

 mile south of Hastings village. By the next year it had reached 

 Warburton Avenue on the river bank and a few plants were 

 noticed just across the Yonkers line. Under the date of October 

 3, 1900, my note -book reads : " S. speciosa has spread very 

 rapidly since last year and now solidly covers the slope on the 

 edge of the woods near the trolley terminus. It is still spreading 

 south. It is only two years since I have seen it here at all." 

 The same year I found that it had taken possession of a field on 

 the western slope of the Sawmill River valley, a mile or more to the 

 east. Here, too, only a few plants had been noticed the year before. 



