THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



29 



circumference. A year of drouth evidently killed them for none 

 have been seen during these past ten years in that place. This 

 Saxifrage is not native to the middle north but is indigeous to 

 the Southern states. Another instance of the feature alluded 

 to was found in the water plantain (Alisina). The blooms of 

 this particular plant were pink. One summer after very heavy 

 rains which made a slough of a low place along the highway, 

 there were found dozens of the plants but the very next year 

 when the water had been drained away the plantains disap- 

 peared and have never been seen since though we have always 

 the arrow head and one or tw^o related plants. — Mrs. James 

 Edwin Morris. 



Spring Flowers in Autumn. — In a certain spot along 

 the sand ridges of the country about Hammond, Indiana, I 

 found in full bloom on September 12, 1914, the bird's-foot 

 violet ( Viola pedata lincariloha) and the hoary pea ( Tephrosia 

 Firginiana) , two species flowering ordinarily in late spring or 

 early summer. The contrast to the same species elsewhere in 

 the region was very striking, as there the plants had long ago 

 bloomed and matured their seeds. I noticed that the locality 

 in which the late flowering plants occurred had earlier in the 

 year been subjected to a severe fire which seems to have killed 

 all the vegetation above ground, but as there was so little humus 

 in the barren sand the roots escaped uninjured. In this burn- 

 ing, I think, the cause of the late blooming is tO' be found. From 

 the uninjured roots new foliage was put out and enough nutri- 

 tion was thus supplied to enable the plants to flower. The 

 hoary pea was somewhat dwarfed and the violet had rather 

 smaller flowers than usual, otherwise the two species were 

 flourishing very well. Of course the bird's-foot violet often 

 produces flowers in autumn, but as the flowers were here so 

 many to a plant and occurring as they did on all the plants 

 noticed, there is no- doubt whatever that this was not the usual 

 condition, even if the further evidence of the hoary pea and the 



