Hypericum canadense in Europe: an Addition

In the previous volume of this periodical the present author reported on the occurrence of Hypericum canadense L. in the Netherlands, together with that in a similar locality in Ireland and in a more deviating locality in France, discovered by Webb and by Bouchard respectively. Dr. C. Simon of Basel, Switzerland, was so kind to send dried material of two collections from the French locality, collected by him on August 17th, 1958, and August 20th, 1959 (Haute Saone, at the beach of a lake in the region of the Etang d’Arfin, near La Mer, alt. 540 m). This material, however, appeared to belong to another species, though related to H. canadense, namely, Hypericum majus (A. Gray) Britt. Dr. Simon himself arrived already at the same conclusion, which, according to his letter, was confirmed moreover by Dr. Merxmueller who reported, in 1956, the finding of the latter species in Germany, in a locality where it had been introduced by U.S. military units during world war II. It is remarkable in this connection that Bouchard in his discussion of the possibilities of introduction into France mentioned the stay in the area in question of U.S. army units during world war I.