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38 



MR. JAMES BRITTEN ON SOME 



Banksian Ilerbariiun lias been exhausted is shown by the fact that even 

 now new species are described of which the only known material is that 

 collectod by Masson a hundred and fifty years ago— an example of this 

 IS Tkamnea Massoniana, Dumnier, published in Journ. Bot, 1912, Supp, ii- 

 p. 19 ; in the same Supplement it is noted that Masson collected Staavia 

 Dodii, Bolus, a species first described in 1899 (Ic. Plant, t. 2558). S, Broicnii, 

 Dinnnier (op. cit. 28) is based on two specimens collected hy Robert Brown 

 at the beginning of the last century, probably in 1801, a date which appears 

 on other of his Cape specimens^ and on a cultivated specimen at Kew\ 

 Mr. Dummer writes : '' A fragment in the Britisli Museum with an appended 

 note stating tlie height of the species to be 4-5 feet, hut without reference 

 as to collector " : the " note " is in Ihe hand of II. Brown, who douhtless 

 jilso collected it. (It is hy the svaj curious that the specific nume, by whie 

 Mr. Diunnier commemorates Mr. N. E. Brown, should also serve to recall 

 the collector of the only wild specimens known of the plant.) 



Erica margaritacea, Ait. Hort. Kew. ii. 20. The type of this is in Herb. 

 Jianks — specimens from Kew Gardens, 1779, to which it had been intro- 



\ 



duced hy Masson in 1775. A reference to tlie Solander MSS. shows the 

 undesirability of assigning to their supposed authors individual descriptions 



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Solander, but neither name nor diagnosis are his; he described it under 



hich will be found attached to the specimens in Herb. 



otl 



ler name, w 



Sloane, ccxvii, ff. 27, 34, civi, 235 (Oldenland), and cclxi, 11 (Desmarets) 

 The name and the long description (and doubtless also the diagnosis) are in 



(J 



) which 



indicates that there were two forms of the species and that the description in 

 Hort. Kew. is limited to one of them. The plant written up as margaritacea 

 by Dryander In Herb. Banks differs a good deal in appearance from the 

 specimens to which Solander applied the unpublished name subsequently 

 considered identical with it, and with those which are generally accepted as 

 margarllacea ; but the material is somewhat scanty and the matter had better 

 await a future monographer. Meanwhile it may be noted that on the 

 Banksian sheet are two drawings by F. P. Nodder named E, margaritacea 

 and E. margaritacea ^ which seem to represent the two plants. The speci- 

 men from Herb. Salisbury mentioned in Fl. Cap. Is from the herbarium of 

 Edward Iludge (1763-1846), now incorporated in the National Herbarium ; 

 it is labelled E. ohesa — a name which was substituted by Salisbury (Prodr. 

 294) for E. margaritacea ; Salisbury expresses some doubt as to the identity 

 of the two which Dryander had indicated, but later (Linn. Trans, vi. 375) 

 accepts this view. Salisbury's specimen corresponds closely with that 

 named margaritacea by Dryander. 



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Soland. ex Sulisb. in Trans. Linn. Soc. vi. 281. 



The 



onlv specimen named by Solander, to whom Salisbury rightly attributes the 



