Tas. 7082. 
SHORTIA GALACIFOLIA. 
Native of Carolina. 
Nat. Ord. Drapensiacem.—Tribe GALACINER. 
Genus Suortia, Torr. & Gr.; (Benth. et Hook.f. Gen. Pi. vol. ii. p. 620.) 
SHort1a galacifolia ; glaberrima, cespitosa, foliis longe petiolatis orbiculari- 
bus v. basi subcordatis repando-denticulatis Incidis, scapis perplurimis 
foliis longioribus supra medium vaginatis rubris 1-floris, floribus nutanti- 
bus 1-2-bracteatis, bracteis calycibusque rubris, sepalis oblongis obtusis 
erectis, corolla infundibulari-campanulata alba, lobis ovato-oblongis 
grosse crenatis, filamentis crassis tubo corolla adnatis apicibus liberis, 
antheris incurvis horizontalibus, connectivo lato crasso, loculis marginali- 
bus angustis, staminodiis basin fere tubi corollz insertis ovatis inflexis 
villosis, ovario glaberrimo, stylo recto persistente, stigmate minuto 3-lobo 
S. galacifolia, Torr. & Gr. im Amer. Journ. Sc. vol. xiii. p. 48; Ser. ii. vol. 
xlv. p. 402; Ser. iti. vol. xvi. p. 483; Gray in Proc. Amer. Acad. vol. viii. 
p- 246; in Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. vi. vol. vii. p. 171, +. 15; Synopt. Flor. 
NV. Am. vol. ii. pt. i. pp. 53 and 399; Sprague & Goodale, Wild Fl. 
of N. Am. p. 107, t. 24; Masters in Gard. Chron. 1881, vol. i. p. 596, 
fig. 109; Sargent in Garden and Forest, 1888, p. 506, fig. 80. 
_ One of the most interesting of North American plantss 
on account of its history, its great rarity, and of the 
geographical distribution of the genus to which it belongs, 
which consists of only two species, the present and an 
almost undistinguishable congener, a native of Japan. 
Shortia is thus one of the most striking proofs of that 
kinship of the Floras of Eastern Temperate Asia and 
Hastern North America, to the exclusion of Western 
America, through the study of which Asa Gray has thrown 
so much light on the past history of the vegetation of the 
northern hemisphere. ! | 
The following history of Shortia galacifolia is from the 
pen of Professor Sargent, as published in the Garden and 
Forest. “The great interest of Shortia is found in the 
history of this plant during the past century, and in the 
fact that of all the plants studied and described and 
classified by Asa Gray, this little herb most excited his 
interest. . . . Professor Gray was in Europe in 1839, and 
when examining the Herbarium of the elder Michaux, 
- Ocroper Ist, 1889. 
