The proves to be Vilfa cuspidata, Tor. in Hooker, Fl. Bor. Am. It is a delicate grass, with a filiform leaf and short, slender spike. species is thus brought south and east of the locality at Saskatcha wan. From this brief and hurried account of the indigenous species of the St. John's section, I proceed to speak of the more important cultivated plants peculiar to the region. So far as I have been informed, the Acadians on the St. John are the only people in America who use certain of these plants to any great extent, although the same species have been cultivated for a long time in some parts of Europe. It may be proper to say, in this connection, that the Acadians are descendants of people who emigrated from France in the last century, and they still preserve many of their former French cus toms and habits, And so we find growing in their gardens and fields the same species which were cultivated by their ancestors who brought the seed from Europe. Among these plants the most important are the Alliaceous or Garlic tribe. Not only do the Acadians cultivate the common onion which is Allium Cepa, and the garlic, Allium sativum, but also the following which are commonly recognized as belonging to the south of Europe: Allium pallens, L.-A stout plant with tubular leaves and drooping flowers, in which the stamens are as long as the corolla. Allium Moly, L.-Leaves all radical, flat and sessile; umbel branching; flowers large and yellow. Allium Cepa, L., var. a.—Bulblets underground. These plants are used extensively by the Acadians in preparing the buckwheat and barley broth upon which they subsist. They even use garlic in their bread, or at least that is the impression a stranger receives. Barley is one of their principal crops, and can be raised with certainty. Rye is cultivated to some extent, but the great staple is "Rough Buckwheat," or, as they call it, "Sarrazin." This is the true Polygonum Tataricum of the European botanies, and differs from common buckwheat not only in the slender cotyledons, but in the roughness of the seeds. mon. The fact of its early ripeness is of vast importance to people who live where a frost in August, or early in September, is not uncomBut this is not the only reason of its extensive use among this people. It seems most likely that buckwheat is planted and raised because it requires less care and labor than other crops, and this supposition accords with the recognized habits of the Madawaskans. I have been told by an acute observer, that this protracted use of "Rough buckwheat" as an article of food, is not without its effect upon the people. The remark was made that the Madawaskans were afflicted with a troublesome cutaneous irritation, in consequence of eating this grain. In fact the story has already obtained some credence among the lumbermen of the river; but careful inquiry failed to confirm the notion A slight constitutional disturbance is the immediate result of a change from wheaten flour to buckwheat used exclusively; but not more than attends any important change of diet. * Perhaps the extensive manufacture of sugar from the sugar maple, entitles the tree to be placed in this class. At Black river we noticed a good many maple trees, and further down, many 24 more; but it was not till we had passed Little Black river that this tree began to be very plenty. All down the St. John from this point last named, a great many of the inhabitants are engaged, in spring, in preparing the sugar, and large quantities of the nicest sugar are sold to speculators, who buy it for the St. John Market. In closing this part of the report, I must be permitted to again say that careful and thorough exploration was of course confined to the immediate vicinity of the rivers and lakes, and therefore the observations about the timber lands must be regarded as necessarily applying to only a narrow margin of land bordering the water. I now approach a part of the report which is of peculiar interest to me. During the latter portion of the season, I was enabled to visit a portion of Eastern Aroostook. I was at once struck by the singular difference between its vegetation and that of Northern Aroostook which we had just left. Upon examining my specimens collected there by myself, and those received through the kindness of a botanist resident at Ashland, I found among them several plants which belong to a more southern parallel. These characteristic plants seem to occupy a belt running north and south along the border, and a portion of the belt extends south-westward to the Wassataquoik. Of course the limits are not as yet well defined— this work must be left for a subsequent survey, but a list of the characteristic species will be given, in order that those in Aroostook, interested in Botany, will note the occurrence of them in their county. Anemone Pennsylvanica, L. Adlumia cirrhosa, Raf. Claytonia Virginica, L. Near Ashland. Acer dasycarpum, Ehrhart. Lobelia Kalmii, L. Pogonia verticillata, Nutt. Communicated by Rev. Mr. Keep. Platanthera Hookeri, Lindley. Aralia quinquefolia, Gray. By Mr. Currier. The fact that these plants should be found in a section so far north, is interesting, and the more so, as the northern species seem to have given place to these, and they were not seen at all within the belt of more western vegetation. Very likely the same influences which combine to encourage in Eastern Maine the growth of the plants of Western Massachusetts, aid in the development of the fertility of Aroostook, giving to the farmers of that section a more southern climate. And it will be not only interesting in future exploration to determine the limits of such vegetation, but it will be of great importance to farmers, as the same limits will define the boundaries of land in Aroostook which may be cultivated to the best advantage. It is not only along the Aroos-took and Presque Isle rivers that these plants have been collected, but they have been noticed in other places remote from the river interval. Upon what this limit of species depends it is not possible, even now to conjecture. This, with other important questions, will be reserved for future investigation. I wish to state, in closing, that I have arranged the duplicate specimens collected this season in sets which can be distributed among those institutions of our State in which botany is taught, or |