144 Forty-fourth Report on the State Museum 



shoots are perfectly erect and nearly always have the leaves 

 either completely five-foliated or the lateral leaflets deeply two- 

 lobed, so that were it possible to overlook the dense coat of bristles 

 with which the stem and petioles are clothed they might easily be 

 mistaken for a small growth of Ruhus villosus. The old stems 

 usually become recurved as in R. occidentalis, and have the leaves of 

 the flowering- branches trifoliate. The peduncles and pedicels are 

 mostly bristly and the sepals mucronate pointed. The plants grow 

 from one to two feet high. Were the species of Rubus disposed to 

 hybridize as some claim for R. occidentalis and R. strigosus, it might 

 be asserted that this is a hybrid between R. villosus var. fron- 

 dosus and R. hispidus, the former giving character to the leaves 

 and the mode of growth, the latter to the clothing of the stem. 

 The former was present in the vicinity of these plants, but the 

 latter was not seen in that neighborhood. It is in my opinion to be 

 considered a*variety rather than a hybrid. The Caroga plant noticed 

 in the Thirty-eighth report is the same thing. It approaches 

 variety setosus T. & Gr. in some respects, but its thin leaves and 

 more erect habit distinguish it. 



Myriophyllum tenellum Bigel 

 Plentiful at the outlet of Cheney pond. August. 



Lythrum alatum Pursh. 

 Apparently well established in a pasture near Selkirk. 



Opuntia vulgaris Mill. 



In grassy ground on the summit of a high hill in Columbia 



county, four miles south of Hudson, is a station for this plant. The 



hill is locally known as Mount Merino, and the plants are scattered 



over an area several rods in extent. The plants mostly exhibit the 



characters that would place them under 0. Rqfinesquii, but in some 



the short leaves of 0. vulgaris are present. I therefore leave the 



species for the present under the name applied to it by Dr. Torrey 



in the State Flora. 



Galium triflorum Mx. 



Professor R. P. Thomas informs me that this common plant, 

 popularly known as " sweet-scented bed straw," has recently 

 acquired considerable celebrity among some of the inhabitants of 

 Montgomery county, because of its medicinal qualities. It is 

 reported that an aggravated case of dropsy, which had been pro- 

 nounced by the physicians hopeless and incurable, was cured by the 



