
          that it must be also very near if
 not identical with the species. [crossed out : ?]
 An inspection and comparison since
 my return home (yesterday) seems to me
 to confirm this idea. Indeed I can 
 see no difference except in the narrower
 and smaller leaves. My Western
 specimens are not however in flower, 
 while I saw but a single young fruit
 on the Va. [Virginia] ones. The habit too is somewhat
 different from Mr. Nuttall's description, 
 as it is a small procumbent plant
 hardly ever rising more that an inch
 or two from the ground. But to offset
 this is the fact that the plants I saw
 were comparitively few in number, (not
 more than fifty altogether), and had evidently
 been much nibbled at by sheep.


 If it is identical with the Western 
 plant it seems to me to open up
 an interesting question, as to whether
 these few plants are all that remain
 of [inserted : the many] that might once have been [crossed out :?]

        