28 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



ing year it appeared again from which I inferred it was not a 

 sport. My son found more at some distance and sent it to Prof. 

 Gray with an inquiry. Dr. Watson wrote that Prof. Gray was 

 in England but that the specimen was not a new species. Blue 

 and purple flowers were sometimes turned to white but were 

 only a form of the type. Later, in Danville, Vt., my son brought 

 a yellow orchid which was not Habenaira ciliaris. The finder 

 seeing it at a distance thought it a solidago — that tone of 

 yellow. I sent it to Dr. Britton to determine. He wrote, 'T 

 take it to be hlcphariglottis:' When I referred to the descrip- 

 tion in his botany I was satisfied that though Habenaria 

 blephariglo'tfis is mentioned as pure white, Dr. Britton was 

 right in allowing it could be yellow under certain conditions. — 

 Mrs. F. L. Knoidton^ Medzuay, Mass. 



Adventive Nature of Some Plants. — Any one inter- 

 ested in plant life, whether a botanist or simply a collector, must 

 notice the adventive nature of some flowering plants. Such a 

 one will find that here and there some flower springs into bloom, 

 blooms perhaps several years, the seasons being favorable, and 

 then disappears. This has been the experience of the writer. 

 After covering the same field of investigation, some thirty miles 

 square, for five years there was discovered one day a single 

 bloom of Saxifrage leucanthemifo'Iia. This particular saxifrage 

 was named for the botanist Andre Michaux but whether father 

 or son the writer is not able tO' ascertain. Both were sent to 

 this country by the French government to study our North 

 American tree^ with a view to introducing into France those 

 valuable for their wood or other products. The French Revolu- 

 tion deprived the elder Michaux of assistance from his govern- 

 ment and he set sail for home, losing his valuable collection in 

 a shipwreck. Later his son spent a number of years on this 

 soil and many of our trees were by him introduced into France. 

 The delicate little Saxifrage in question spread and bloomed 

 year after year for five years forming a bed some six feet in 



