1903] Fernald, — Pursh’s Report of Dryas 283 
During the preparation of his Flora Pursh was associated with 
Banks, who would naturally tell him of that portion of North 
America (Newfoundland and Labrador) which he, Banks, had 
explored but which Pursh had never seen. It is most probable that 
the White Hills were mentioned by Banks who had collected the 
Dryas on a rugged island off shore from some of the principal peaks 
of that range, and that Pursh, to whom Newfoundland was an unfa- 
miliar region, confused the Newfoundland mountains with the “ White 
Hills of New Hampshire," whose alpine plants were familiar to him 
through the collections of Peck.? This very natural error is rendered 
more probable by the fact that the data accompanying the Banksian 
plant is on the reverse side of the large herbarium-sheet and is not 
apparent to the hasty observer. And Pursh must have made hasty 
observations and notes; for the tremendous work of ‘actually pre- 
paring his Flora was accomplished with almost unprecedented speed, 
in less than two years, during which time he not only organized his 
own material and notes secured during twelve years in America and 
examined among others the herbaria of Banks, Lambert, Clayton, 
Pallas, Plukenet, Catesby, Morison, Walter, and Sherard, but was 
constantly handicapped by the restless spirit which controlled his 
entire life. 
In view, then, of the evidence derived from the Banksian Herba- 
rium there is little question that the original Dryas tenella came from 
an island close under the White Hills of northern Newfoundland, and 
that Pursh was in error in crediting it to New Hampshire. Should 
the plant be found hereafter on our own “ White Hills " it may be 
safely considered a new discovery. 
GRAY HERBARIUM. 
1“ Sir Joseph Banks, with his accustomed liberality, supported my undertaking 
by giving me access to his extensive library and herbarium."— Pursh, 1. c. xvi. 
? « During my journey [from Wiscasset] towards New York, I had an oppor- 
tunity of visiting Professor Peck of Cambridge College near Boston, and seeing 
his highly interesting collection of plants, collected on a tour to the alpine regions 
of.the White Hills of New Hampshire. As the season was too far advanced 
when I was in that country to suffer me to think of ascending those mountains, 
this collection was highly gratifying to me."— Pursh, l. c. xv. 
3“The whole study must have been rapid. The despatch is wonderful. One 
can hardly understand the ground of thestatement made by Lambert to my former 
colleague, Dr. Torrey, that he was obliged to shut Pursh up in his housein order 
to keep him at his work."— Gray, Am. Jour. Sci. 5, xxiv, 325. 
