96 



forming a clump) in a dry and barren field. Evidently they 

 were affected by the sterile soil as Mr. Otis' specimens show 

 plants only one to two feet high. With the extension into 

 Delaware a stretch of nearly thirty miles to the southwest of 

 Philadelphia is added to the plant's distribution. 



While the notes on this matter were in drafting there appeared 

 in an issue of the Journal of the New York Botayiical Garden* 

 under the list of accessions to the herbarium, the item "i 

 specimen of Sonchus uliginosus from Pennsylvania (Given by 

 Mr. E. A. Rau.)" and shortly thereafter came a brief note by 

 Dr. John K. Small in Torreya] amplifying this to a statement 

 that the species, here first reported for America, was established 

 in fields near Hecktown in Northampton County, where Mr. 

 Rau had collected material July 21, 192 1. Of this locality 

 certain more detailed information has been furnished by Mr. 

 Rau. The plant was found in a grain-field about a mile west 

 of Hecktown and brought to his attention by an acquaintance 

 interested in its identity. A large colony of it was obser\'ed. 

 From local accounts the same species was believed to occur in 

 other nearb}' fields. Hecktown is ten miles to the northeast 

 of Allentown. 



The above does not represent by any means the entirety of 

 the field observations on the occurrence of the plant in the 

 Philadelphia area. It is often so tall and so conspicuous when 

 in bloom, especially in the morning when the heads are expanded, 

 that it may readily be detected from the railroad-train, trolley- 

 car, or automobile. Mr. Pretz has numerous notes of such 

 probable occurrences in Lehigh County which need only closer 

 obser\-ation or collection to be substantiated. There are also 

 several reports from other local areas, of which specimen vouchers 

 have not yet been obtained. 



These stations lie in the counties of Northampton, Lehigh, 

 Bucks, and Philadelphia of southeastern Pennsylvania and in 

 Newcastle County of northern Delaware. The northernmost 

 is Hecktown and the most southerly, Marshallton, They all lie 

 within a rectangle about seventy miles north and south by 

 thirty miles east and west; the meridian of Hecktown is in the 

 median line. Itscenterof frequence would appear to be in Lehigh 



* Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. xxii. 192 (1922). 

 t Small, Torreya, xxi. loo (1922). 



