363 
New or Noteworthy North American Phanerograms.—V. 
By N. L. Britton. 
Lhalictrum dioicum, L. var. CORIACEUM n. var. Segments 
of the decompound leaves firm, pale beneath, rather dark green 
above, reniform-orbicular and broader than long, or obovate, 
deeply and sharply incised, the lobes rounded. ‘‘ Plant always 
dicecious, staminate flowers white, pistillate purple.” 
At elevations above 3,000 feet, on Blowing Rock, Table 
Rock and Stone Mountain, North Carolina. Collected by J. K. 
Small and A. A. Heller, 1891, and by Professor Porter in the 
same region many years before. 
Ranunculus delphinifolius, Torr. in Eaton, Man. Ed. 2, 395 
(1818) and subsequent editions; not H.B.K. Nov. Gen. v. 48 
(1821). 
R. multifidus, Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 736 (1814) not Fors- 
kall (1775). 
R. fluviatilis, Bigel. Fl. Bost. 139 (1814) not of Willd. 
R. Purshii, Hook. Fl. Bor, Am. i. 15 (1830) in part. 
R. lacustris, Beck & Tracy, in Eaton, Man. Ed. 3, 395 (1822). 
The name of this plant has had a very curious history, which 
I am now prepared to trace, having seen authentic specimens of 
all the above-cited descriptions. First characterized by Pursh, 
who gave it a name already belonging to an Egyptian or Arabi- 
an plant, it was next alluded to by Dr. Torrey, under the name 
R. delphinifolius. Pursh’s type was collected by Bradbury in 
“ Upper Louisiana,” and is preserved in the Herbarium of the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Torrey’s plant 
was from New York, and a specimen bearing the label in his own 
handwriting is contained in the Kew Herbarium, “2. delphinzfolius, 
Torr. in Eat. Man. Ed. 2.” In his cataiogue of plants within 
thirty miles of New York (1819), Torrey adopted Bigelow’s name 
R. fluviatilis for the species; in his Compendium he took 2X. 
multifidus, and in the Flora of North America and Flora of New 
York he called it R. Purshii, never returning to his original 
name for it. I have been unable to ascertain his reason for this 
course. Perhaps, he thought this was preoccupied by the 
