BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 123 



workers in liotany, find a genus ti> the masters, hut to have one man's name appended 

 to twenty or tliirty speeies, however disliniiiiislied he may be as a collector, sxets to be 

 amusinc;. And lo dedicate a l)eautiful plnnl to Tom, Dick or Harry, simi)ly because 

 he happens to find a new si)ecics, does not tend to make botanical names a special 

 honor to those who deserve them. Just re 1 1 ovit the nanie< of new species described 

 l)y the masters for the past few years. It will be lar!j;ely a list of propernames. The 

 unfortunate part of it is, that the leaders in botany are helpless in the matter. They 

 must have the plants to describe, must keep on the ,<;ood side of their liiligeiit corres- 

 pondents, but they can never do this without naming every other species after the col- 

 lector. A man will risk breaking his neck for a plant that may bear his name when it 

 comes tobe descril)ed. Collectors should be more modest in their claims and be con- 

 tent with one or tw(j species, allowing the resttiiey discover t> be named .something that 

 will give some idea of the plant. Surely'^somethiiig descrii)tive of the species 

 can always be found and used lor the specific name. Of course, liy desciip- 

 tive names are not meant such as have deiight'd our eyes in the last few 

 numliers of the American Journal of Hcienee and Arts, where ses'[uipcdalian 

 words, made up of names of elements and half the letters of the Greek alphabet, and 

 stretching clear across a l)road jiage, describe some ol)srure cliemical compound that 

 the weightof snch a name could grind to powder. Nor do we want such names as that 

 poor little new doul)le white Violet bears among g.irdiers, namely, Vidla odonita alha 

 friifjra'il/xsimd plemi. Rut S'>me simple descriptive adjective added to the generic name 

 would mean something to every one and woulil always be ai)plicable.— N. 



A Kansas CLEM.vrrs. — In the June number of the Gazette, Mr. Matthew 11. Pan- 

 tou, cf Junction City, says he found Clrumtis vcliroleucd in Cloud county. In 1874, 

 Louis Watson, M. I)., of Elli-s, Kansas, sent me a ClciiKitix which I called C. orhrolenra, 

 as it agreed better witii the description under that name than willi any other which I 

 had. I learned, however, from Dr. Wat.son liiat it was nol C cr/iroleuai, but C. Erc- 

 moiitiL In "Contributions to ximerican Botany, by Sereno \^"atson, issued April, IST.')," 

 is the following description of C. Frcvionlii as a new plant: 



"Stem stout, erect, clustered, G-12 inclns high, leafy and usually branidied, niorr or 

 less villous-tomeutose, especially at the nodes; leaves simple, o-4 pairs, coriaceous and 

 with the veiulets conspicuously reticulated, sparingly villous, sessile, broadly ovate, en- 

 tire or few-toothed, 2-4 inches long; flowers terminal, nodding, the thick purple sei)als 

 an inch long, narrowly lanceolate, tomentose upon the margin, recurved at the tip, the 

 peduncles becoming erect in fruit; akenes silky, ^-4 lines long, the tails less than an 

 inch long, naked above, silky at base. This well marked species, the western repre- 

 sentative of C. Dchroli'i/rtf, was lirst collected liy Fremont (n. li»4) on his second e.\i)edi- 

 tion, but without note of the locality. It was re-discovered during the past season by 

 Louis Watson, M. D., in the neighborhood of Ellis, Kansas." 



This is probably what Mr. Panton has lound. — J. H. Caukuth, Laicrence, KaiDiUs, 

 June lOC/i, 1877. 



Some Botanical Notes fko.m Kansas. — The s])ring season in Central Kansas 

 opens very irregularly. 1 have seen the prairies covered with the white and blue 

 blossoms of A)ianone Ctirolinuniii, large jiatehes ol AnrJrosfirr ocridenfaiis, and JJrahn 

 Caroliniaiia, as early as the i3d or 4th of April, and I once gatliered a peculiar form of 

 Erythroimun iilbifhnii, March 27th, haviug^narrow leaves, neither spotted nor blotched, 

 their petioles a reddish color, the sepals neither reflexed nor spreading, but each having 

 a bright yellow si)ot at the base inside. In other years I have found nearlj- all of the 

 above making their first appearance about tliree weeks or a month later. In April, 

 Anemone (Jaroliniana is the most conspicuous and abundant of our prairie flowers, ap- 

 pearing almost as soon as the frost is out of the ground, and is closely followed by 



