392 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
Torrey Botanical Club many years ago,® contains the earliest record available of the 
presence of the Paraguay bur in the United States and is of sufficient interest to be 
reproduced here. 
‘‘ACANTHOSPERMUM XANTHOIDES.—About the year 1851 the then existing factory 
of Belleville, a few miles from Augusta [Georgia], received a quantity of wool imported 
from Buenos Aires. This wool was found to contain great numbers of small burs, 
which were separated by the picking machine, and the ‘trash’ was thrown outside 
of the picker room. The following year there sprang up innumerable plants of a 
spreading habit, which covered the ground all around the factory, and in a very few 
years the surrounding country was filled with the plant. The hooks upon the 
involucre allow the heads, or burs, to attach themselves to the legs of cattle, and in this 
way the seeds are carried about and widely scattered. 
“T first saw the plant in 1857, when it made its appearance on my place simulta- 
neously with Lespedeza striata, and I attribute its introduction here to the servants, 
who formerly had frequent intercourse with those at the Belleville factory. I have 
seen the plant in numerous places along the South Carolina Railroad, and there is 
scarcely a roadside within many miles of Augusta, if the soil is sandy, that is free 
from this plant. While it seems to prefer sandy localities, it will grow quite as 
luxuriantly on clay soils. Mr. Ravenel gave me its name many years ago.”’ 
The vernacular name of this species in Brazil is given by Baker as “carrapicho”’ 
or ‘‘carapixo.”’ 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 23.—a, fruit of Acanthospermum lecocarpoides, Baur 128, scale 4.5; b, fruit of 
A. humile, Pittier 5123, scale 4.5; c, fruit of A. hispidum, Britton & Fishlock 1099, scale 4.5; d, fruit of A. donii, 
Ruiz & Pavén, scale 4.5; e, fruit of A. simile, Spruce 6307, scale 4.5; f, fruit of A. microcarpum, Snodgrass 
& Heller 446, scale 4.5; g, fruit of A. consobrinum, Balansa 874a, scale 4.5; h, fruit of A. australe, Bang 884, 
scale 4.5; i, ray corolla of A. awstrale, Curtiss 1491, scale 10; j, disk flower of A. australe, scale 5; k, pale of 
A. australe, flattened and viewed from back, scale 5; 1, anther of A. australe, scale 10; m, apex of style of 
hemaphrodite flower of A. australe, scale 10. 
® Bull. Torrey Club 6: 90. 1876. 
