88 THE PLANT WOKLD 



In several subsequent letters Dr. Muhlenberg expresses his desire 

 to get better specimens of Elliottia, and especially to see its fruit. To 

 these inquiries Dr. Baldwin replies, from St. Mary's, Georgia, on June 

 17, 1814, as follows: "I have not seen the Elliottia; and Mr. Elliott 

 informed me that he was fearful it would turn out to be only an Octan- 

 drous Clethra." Writing from Savannah, on Jan. 3, 1815, he says : 

 " The Elliottia, Mr. Oemler informs me, is found in the neighborhood of 

 Waynesboro. Eoots shall be procured, if possible." 



The Mr. Oemler referred to, as I have recently ascertained by cor- 

 respondence with one of his grandsons, w^as Dr. Augustus Gottlieb 

 Oemler, a botanist who seems to have collected extensively in South 

 Carolina and Georgia, and corresponded with Baldwin, Elliott, Muhlen- 

 berg and others. He was the discoverer of Coreopsis Oemleri — now re- 

 garded as a variety of C. major— nsimed for him by Elliott. Some of his 

 descendants are living near Savannah, at the present day. 



Dr. Chapman's description in the first edition of his Flora of the 

 Southern States (1860), is practically the same as Elliott's, and the only 

 locality mentioned is Waynesboro, though the plant had in the mean- 

 while been collected near Augusta, by Wray and by Olney. 



Wood, in his Class Book, (edition of 1873), gave a good description 

 of Elliottia racemosa, and mentioned its having been collected near 

 Augusta, by Mr. P. J. Berckmans, who is a prominent horticulturist of 

 that city, and has kept the species growing at his establishment for the 

 last twenty-five years or so. 



In the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for December, 1873, is 

 a note by Dr. Thurber, to the effect that specimens of Elliottia collected 

 by Mr. Berckmans near Augusta were distributed at the meeting of the 

 club on October 28th, and that Mr. Berckmans had been requested to 

 procure fruit, if possible. Dr. Thurber, further remarks : " The plant, 

 through the kindness of Mr. Berckmans, will soon be in cultivation, and 

 then we may discover to what the lack of fructification is due." I do 

 not know that the plan for cultivating it in New York at that time was 

 ever carried out, however. In the same journal for March, 1876, Mr. H. 

 W. Eavenel, writing of " some rare Southern plants," mentions going 

 out with Mr. Berckmans to a station for Elliottia, ten or twelve miles 

 west of Augusta, in the sand-hill region (probably in Columbia County), 

 where there were a large number of the bushes, four to ten feet high 

 (nearly every description gives these same dimensions for the plant), 

 covering perhaps an acre or more. Mr. Ravenel visited this locality 

 in September, 1874, and July, 1875, but found no trace of fruit at either 

 time. The species seems to have disappeared from the vicinity of 

 Augusta shortly after this. 



Mr. A. Cuthbert, of Augusta, informs me in a recent letter that 



