84 ME. bentham's synopsis 



stances considered as quite exceptional. The case of the PJiryma 

 leptostachya has long been known, and is mentioned by Alph. De 

 Candolle in his enumeration of what he terms especes disjointes, 

 which may be rendered by discontinuous or dissevet^ed species. He 

 also alludes to the Saururus cernuus as common to North Ame- 

 rica and China; the very remarkable circumstance of the rare 

 Tipularia occurring at once in the eastern United States and in 

 the Himalayas, was alluded to by Dr. Lindley, in a paper recently 

 read to the Society ; and w^e may now mention, as additional in- 

 stances of perfect identity, the Osmorhiza hrevistylus and Ifono- 

 tropa unijlora, common to these widely distant regions. My 

 AmpMcarpcea Edgworthii, from the Himalaya, is so closely allied 

 to the common North American A. monoica, that the trifling dif- 

 ferences observed in the few specimens examined would probably 

 disappear in other specimens. And in such genera as Schizanthus, 

 Podophyllum, Thermopsis, Astilhe, Itea, Adenocaulon, GlossanthuSy 

 Turpinia, Streptopus, Trillium, and many others — although the 

 N. American or Mexican and Himalayan species may not be iden- 

 tical — yet their close affinity, in well-marked genera containing 

 but very few species, has almost equal weight in regard to their 

 geographical distribution. 



The Clitoria which has been the occasion of these remarks is 

 the C. acuminata. Wall., a common Khasiya plant, which proves 

 to be identical with the original G. Mariana, Linn., from North 

 America. When I gave a diagnosis of Wallich's plant in the 

 * PlantaB Junghuhnianse,' this similarity did not strike me, owing 

 to the greater luxuriance of the Indian specimens, their larger 

 stipules, more pointed leaflets and calyx lobes, &c., frequent re- 

 sults of luxuriance in allied species ; whilst the few American 

 species I then possessed were all from the dry soils where they 

 are said to grow in the United States. Having now, however, had 

 before me a large number of specimens from a great variety of 

 localities, I found, when I came to draw up comparative cha- 

 racters for the two supposed species, that several of the more 

 luxuriant American ones from Texas and Mexico were, in the 

 above-mentioned points also, identical with the East Indian plant. 



The C.macrophylla, Wall., from Tavoy and Java, only known by a 

 small number of specimens, still remains a detached East Asiatic re- 

 presentative of a considerable American type ; a fact which calls to 

 mind how frequently large American genera (such as Eupatorium 

 Aster, Solidago, Solanum, &c.) are represented in Eastern Asia 

 by a small number of species, w^hich gradually diminish or dis- 



