REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 1904 



43 



parte swamp. This roadbed is a sandy gravel of which a com- 

 ponent part is decomposed crystalline limestone, which is abund- 

 ant in that vicinity. The plants were only a few inches above 

 the general level of the swamp. Both were in flower, but the 

 flowers were very abnormal. Instead of the usual sepals, petals and 

 stamens, there were numerous oblong or spatulate petaloid organs, 

 green on the inner surface and more or less tinged with reddish 

 brown on the outer. In one there were about 30, in the other about 

 45 of these pseudopetals. The ovary was imperfectly developed 

 and the usual peltate stigmatic disk was transformed into erect 

 irregular folded or crumpled leaf like lobes. The whole flower was 

 suggestive of a "double blossom" of greenish petals. The unnatural 

 habitat of limestone gravel and sand was the only apparent cause 

 of the transformation. Other plants with flowers of the usual kind 

 were growing near these, but in the soft wet soil of the swamp. 



Silene vulgaris (Moench) Garcke 

 Machias, Cattaraugus co. July. F. E. Fenno. This is a pecu- 

 liar form having few flowered simple stems and narrowly elliptic 

 or ovate leaves. 



Stereum spadiceum Fr. x 



A form of this species was found near Port Jefferson in which 

 the pilei were crispate complicate as in Stereum compli- 

 c a t u m . 



Vagnera stellata (L.) Morong 

 The fruit of the star-flowered Solomon's seal is described in our 

 botanies as sometimes black, and sometimes green with six black 

 stripes. A form was found in Bergen swamp the fruit of which 

 was green with three black stripes. 



Viburnum lentago L. 



The leaves of this species are described as ovate. A form was 

 found near Delanson, Schenectady co. of which the leaves vary 

 from very broadly ovate to nearly orbicular. Another form was 

 found on Crown Point of which the leaves are oblong and pointed 

 at each end. Its fruit is destitute of bloom and ripens earlier than 

 in the typical form. This may prove worthy of varietal dis- 

 tinction. 



Viola palmata dilatata Ell. 

 Wooded hillside near Saugerties. May. In these specimens 

 some leaves have the broad central lobe, others are not lobed at 

 all. It seems to be intermediate between the variety and an 

 entire leaved form. 



