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description by Dr. Thomas C. Porter, the diagnosis of which 
includes such field knowledge as to make it worth quoting in 
full: ““ VERONICA BRITTONI, n. sp. 
“(V. Anagallis L., var. latifolia Britton). Glabrous, perennial, 
growing in shallow, shaded rivulets. In its summer state (June), 
the stems are erect, simple or branching, 2 to 3 feet high, round, 
often half an inch in diameter, succulent, fistular, brittle; the 
, leaves ovate or oblong-ovate, variable in size, 2 to 3 inches in | 
length, more or less clasping at base, the lowest pair sometimes 
contracted into short petioles; racemes numerous, many-flowered. 
In its autumn-state (October), the stems are procumbent at 
base and rooting at the joints, rarely producing racemes of 
flowers; the leaves large, orbicular, 114 to 2 inches in diameter, 
abruptly narrowed into broadly margined petioles, 1% to an 
inch long, shining, thickish when fresh, with prominent veins 
beneath, thin when dried, crenulate, those of the slender branches 
similar but much smaller, petioles of the uppermost very short 
or wanting. Inflorescence, fruit and seeds scarcely to be dis- 
tinguished from those of V. Anagallis and V. Beccabunga; 
flowers pale blue, the three large lobes marked with reddish 
stripes; capsules orbiculate, acutish.”” Then follow citation of 
specimens from northeastern Pennsylvania and northwestern 
New Jersey, and considerable interesting comment. 
From a series of letters of Dr. Porter to Dr. Britton, the 
history of the former’s interest in this plant may be traced. It 
commenced with finding on October 1, 1891 at Pot Rock, near 
Easton, Pennsylvania, a colony of the autumnal petioled-leaved 
form. On the 5th he wrote of having visited a colony of the 
plant in “the little run beside the tavern above Pot Rock,” 
a station whence in ‘in midsummer two or three years ago” 
he had obtained ‘‘a very different form.” The plant was abund- 
ant, and exactly that of the first discovery. On the 12th, Dr. 
Porter was “fully convinced that this plant is genuine V. Bec- 
cabunga, L.,” and accordingly sent a note for the Torrey Bulletin 
to urge this opinion. He had even convinced himself of its 
introduction from the Old World. But for us the most interest 
ing paragraph of this note is that contrasting the autumnal 
state of this plant with Veronica americana: 
