THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



64 



THE GRAY MEMORIAL BOTANICAL CHAPTER 



OF THE AGAS8IZ ASSOCIATION. 



NOTES. 



Members are requested to send in brief 

 notes of interest for publication on this 

 page. Do not wait until the semi-annual 

 report is due. 



Miss Fanny E. Langdon has found 

 Mimulus luteus, L. growing in rocky, 

 swampy land at Plymouth, N. H. 



Its native home in this country is in 

 the Rocky Mountains, and westward to 

 the Paciiic coast where it is very com- 

 m^on. 



How did it get to the ]-nountains of 

 NTew Hampshire ? 



Has it been introduced by some one 

 or may the glacial period have been re- 

 sponsible for its eastern Habitat ? 



According to the New Manual it grows 

 at Norfolk, Ct., adventive from Cali- 

 fornia. 



An excellently prepared list of flow- 

 ering plants growing in Dupage County, 

 Illinois, has been sent around the Chap- 

 ter by Dr. Moflfatt. Every member 

 should make a list of the plants of his 

 vicinity with notes, in regard to habitat, 

 abundance and time of flowering, add 

 to it from year to year, carefully noting 

 appearance of new plants and dissapear- 

 ance of old ones. 



Among other reports recently sent 

 oat, was an instructive one by Gad 

 Barney on the Trees, Shrubs and Vines 

 of Wisconsin and a beautifully illus- 

 trated paper on " Underground Botany" 

 which contained drawings of the roots 

 and rootstocks of Lilium tigrinum, 

 Triticum Canadense, Helianthus sp., 

 Hypoxis erecta, Viola cucullata, Thas- 

 pium aureum, Ranunculus sp., Carda- 

 mine rhomboidea, Thalictrum Cornuti, 

 Oxalis acetosella and Taraxacum offici- 

 nale. 



In good health, the air is a cordial of 

 incredible virtue.— Emerson. 



A RARE NEW ENGLAND PLANT. 



BY MARY RODMAN, MEMBER OP THE 

 GRAY MEMORIAL CHAPTER. 



Plantago Patagonica, var. aristata 

 was found by me July last in light 

 gravelly soil on the borders of a culti- 

 vated field. According to Gray's Man- 

 ual of 1857 this variety was found in 

 Illinois and southward. In the edition 

 of 18G8 the locality was given, "Illinois 

 and south-westward." In the edition of 

 1890 it is said to be "naturalized in 

 Martha's Vineyard and about Boston." 

 The plant is stemless with small incon- 

 spicuous flowers; corolla salver-shaped 

 with four broad round lobes, white with 

 a dark spot at the throat, membrana- 

 ceous and persistent. The flowers are 

 of two kinds; one with short filaments 

 and small anthers enclosed within the 

 corolla tube; the other with large two- 

 celled anthers or long weak filaments 

 which are thread-like and exserted. In 

 both kinds the stamens are borne on the 

 corolla tube. The ovary is two-celled 

 and one seeded. The seed is boat shap- 

 ed and very deeply concave on the face. 

 The pod splits when ripe transversely 

 around the seed thus setting it free, the 

 top rolling ofi" like a lid. The flowers 

 are in a dense spike one half inch to 

 three inches long, borne on a naked 

 scape, each flower having an awned 

 bract three times the length of the flow- 

 er. The spike is green and hairy when 

 young, turning brown with age, and 

 though Dr. Gray says they becomes 

 glabrous with age, mine do not verify 

 this. The leaves are three-nerved, lance- 

 ovate, long and narrowing into a petiole, 

 dull grayish green, silky and soft when 

 young, but hard and rough when old. 

 The plant has a slender tap root. Spec- 

 imens vary ill heighth from four to 

 fourteen inches. I have a few speci- 

 mens of this plant for exchange. 



