THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 31 
appearance of the species. With a constantly diminishing 
number of blossoms left each year to mature seeds, the 
work of extinction has progressed rapidl3^ and surely. 
This has been the history of the plant's existance in many 
localities, and unfortunately is being repeated in others in 
a wa^^ that is not pleasant to think of. 
Efforts are now being made to find out something of 
the plant's life history prior to the blossoming period, 
with the ultimate object of making propagation possible. 
If these are successful some hope may be entertained of 
restocking many situations, or, at least, of introducing 
the plant in the wild garden. It may therefore be of 
interest in this connection to add a fact or two to those 
previously noted. Those are given simply as they have 
been gathered from observation. 
It has not been possible thus far to verify by experi- 
ment, the suggestion previously made that the plant may 
occasionally become a winter annual. That is that the 
seed may germinate as soon as ripe in autumn, and 
develop into small plants before severe weather sets in. 
The seed will germinate in autumn, but not unless the soil 
temperature is constant and equivalent to that of late 
spring. Judging by the results of a number of sowings 
made in the field, in the garden and under glass, it seems 
that the average time for the young plants to appear is 
about May 15-20. Or at that time in this locality when 
all danger of frost is past. The young plants begin to 
appear quite uniformly whether the seed be sown in the 
field or in the garden. 
With few exceptions, the vitality of those seeds exper- 
imented with appeared remarkably resistant to weather 
extremes so long as the temperature of the soil remained 
below that previously given. Excessive wetness, dryness 
or frost seeming to have little effect on the germinating 
quality of the seeds when the time arrived for growth to 
begin. 
A number of seeds in each of the sowings were not 
influenced by heat or moisture. As these seeds were 
