624: PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



" New River White Sulphur Springs," William M. Canby. — It is 

 full time that this interesting accession to our Eastern United States 

 flora should be published. While the original P. Myrsinites * occurs 

 plentifully in most wooded districts from the Rocky Mountains to 

 the Pacific in Northern California and Washington Territory, this is 

 known at only one station in the Alleghany Mountains, and makes an 

 addition to the list of those few genera (such as Boykinia and Calycanthus) 

 which are divided between Eastern and Western North America. 

 Mr. Canby discovered the Alleghanian species in 1868, and obtained 

 flowering specimens upon a second visit to the station in the spring of 

 1869. It was submitted both to Dr. Torrey and to Dr. Curtis. The 

 former determined the genus and indicated the specific characters ; the 

 latter proposed that it should bear the discoverer's name. Both these 

 eminent botanists having passed away without taking any steps in the 

 matter, it is left for me to carry their intentions into effect, and to con- 

 nect with this well-marked species the name of its sole discoverer, one 

 of the most active and excellent of our botanists of this generation. 

 The following note respecting the station, which Mr. Canby has fur- 

 nished, will be useful to botanists who may, it is hoped, make this 

 most rare new species commonly known, and even bring it into culti- 

 vation, f 



Linum adenophyllum. Hesperolinon, annum, fere glaberrimum ; 

 caule tenui effuse paniculato ; pedicellis filiformibus flore 2-3-plo lon- 



* Pachystima Myrsinites Eaf. Erecta, dumosa, 1-2-pedalis; foliis ovali- 

 bus ovato-lanceolatis vel fere oblanceolatis magis serratis ; pcdunculis (pauci-vel 

 plurifloris) pedicellisque brevibus ; petalis late ovatis ; stylo subulato. — Not being 

 able to make out the etymology of the generic name, I am in doubt as to its gender. 

 It may be neuter instead of feminine, as I have assumed it to be. 



f I first saw this plant in August, 1858, on the top and near the edge of a jag- 

 ged and very picturesque bluft" of limestone rock, of about four hundred feet in 

 perpendicular height, which causes a very abrupt bend in the " New River," flowing 

 at its base. It is in Giles County, Virginia, at a place of summer resort called 

 " The New River White Sulphur Springs." The top of the bluff and the hill 

 beyond are covered with a forest of deciduous trees and cedars. Below in the clefts 

 and in the shelves of the rock are found plentifully Sedum telephioides, S. Nevii, 

 Gray, Armaria }><\tnt<t, Michx., Phacelia parvijiora, Pursh, and other interesting 

 plants. At the time mentioned, Pachystima was neither in flower nor fruit. But 

 again visiting the locality about the middle of May, 1869, I had the <:ood fortune 

 to hud it in flower and a single specimen with an immature capsule, which at that 

 stage of growth appears very much like that of P. Myrsinites Raf. w. m. c. 



