

2 <5 BOTANICAL QAZETTE. 



rium on either side of the Atlantic. At best we have had young, 

 succulent growths — usually taken with the mature fruit. Mr. 

 Suksdorf's specimens give us the full grown — if not the old and 

 rigid leaves, and they show a decided approach to so called Coulteril 

 It remains to consider the thicker and more densely villous aments, 

 and the stout, furrowed, tomentose twigs of Coulter/; but here 

 again Mr. Suksdorf's specimens are intermediate in character, and 

 we need only concede a degree of variation paralleled by our famliar 

 S. hum His to warrant the uniting of the two extremes. 



I broach, with much hesitancy, a further consideration of the 

 place of S. Sitchensis in a methodical arrangement of species. Pro- 

 fessor Andersson grouped it with sericea wApetiolaris as a peculiar- 

 ly American type, at the same time arranging Coulteri with lasio- 

 lepis as manifestly representing the European S. daphnoides, sug- 

 gesting however a doubtful affinity to S. discolor (eriocephala) and 

 S. lanata through the intermediation of Hookeriana and speciosa. 

 Remembering the scanty material before the distinguished Salicolo- 

 gist these conjectures appear sufficiently plausible; but Coulter/', 

 must be most nearly allied to — if not identical with — Sitchensis and 

 it is clear that Sitchensis is distinguished from the species with 

 which it has been heretofore associated not only by the single sta- 

 men but also by the long, narrowly cylindrical fertile aments erect 

 then spreading, subsessile capsules with manifest style — short peti- 

 oled leaves with entire revolute margins, etc. 



May it not be that Sitchensis represents in America the Euro- 

 pean Synandrw, a group so commonly distributed throughout 

 Europe and Asia that its entire omission from our flora has always 

 appeared remarkable, and furthermore one which if found at all 

 with us would most likely appear on the Pacific slope where already 

 S. Bre/reri gives us our only species of the Viminales. Is the coales- 

 cence of the two stamens in purpurea carried a step further to the 

 extreme of suppressing entirely one of the members in Sitchensis? 

 A peculiar American type it may still be, "pulcherrima et dis- 

 tinct issima species'" it most certainly is, but its place seems to be with 

 or near the Synandrce rather than among any of the recognized 

 groups of the Diandrce. — M. S. Bebb. 



Protamlry of Pastinaca — Will you kindly allow me to 

 correct a mistake into which your correspondent, A. F. Foerste, 

 falls, in his note on "Pastinaca sativa Proterandrous ,, (Bot. Ga- 

 zette, Feb. 1882, p. 24.). So far as I know all Umbellifer/v that 

 have been studied in this respect are described as protandrous, and 

 in nearly every case the dichogamy is quite as marked as in Pas- 

 tinaca. Although not understood, the fact was observed by Pon- 

 tedera 160 years ago; and it was well described and explained by 

 Sprengel near the end of the last century. There are probably a 

 few genera having inconspicuous flowers, with imperfect protandry, 

 and it is not impossible that synacmic species may be found. So 



