OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: MAY 13, 1873. 631 



Dirca occidentals. Foliis ovalibus basi rotundatis ; squamis 

 involucri extus albido-villosis ; floribus fructibusque fere sessilibus ; 

 perigouio breviter infundibuliformi tri - quadrilobo. — California, on the 

 Oakland hills (perhaps in ravines), Dr. J. M. Bigelow (D. palus- 

 tris Torr. Bot. Whippl. p. 77, non Linn.), Dr. A. Kellogg and W. G. 

 W. Harford, no. 895 of distribution. — A second species of this before 

 monotypical genus is of peculiar interest. The Californian Dirca was 

 collected twenty years ago by Dr. Bigelow, " with flowers and young 

 fruit," according to Dr. Torrey, but there are only vestiges of the for- 

 mer in my specimens. If they had been in good condition, Dr. Torrey 

 would have noticed the characters of the. species, which are now mani- 

 fest. The white hairs of the floral bud-scales may not be constant ; 

 for in D. palustris they are occasionally pale ; but the deep and rounded 

 lobes of the more funnelform calyx are characteristic, being from one 

 fourth to one third the length of the tube. Very commonly there are 

 only three sinuses, one lobe being broader and emarginate. The sta- 

 mens are uniformly eight. The original species may be thus charac- 

 terized : — 



Dirca palustris Linn. Foliis basi angustioribus ; squamis involu- 

 cri nigricanti-villosis ; floribus pi. m. pedicellatis ; perigonio tubuloso- 

 infundibuliformi margine tantum repando. — Nova Scotia to Lake 

 Superior and Lake of the Woods, and southward to Florida along the 

 Alleghanies. 



Notes on Compositce and Characters of certain Genera and 

 Species, etc. By Asa Gray. 



The following notes and characters are partly in the way of com- 

 mentary upon the recent most important revision of the order Compo- 

 sitce by Mr. Bentham, in the second volume of Bentham and Hooker's 

 Genera Plantamm, and partly the re-elaboration of certain genera, or 

 the addition or reformation of species, chiefly such as have fallen in my 

 way while engaged upon this portion of the Flora of California. 



Hofmeisteria Walp. The character " pappi . . . paleis acutis " 

 is indeed applicable to the later species, but not at all to Bentham's 

 original species: the palese are rightly figured in Bot. Sulph. t. 14, as 

 very truncate and lacerate at the summit. 



Adenostyles Nardosmia. The Californian species referred to 

 this genus in Gen. PI. p. 247 is indeed an interesting and rather anoru- 



