212 PKOCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



cavo. — Near St. George, on the southern border of Utah, Dr. 

 Edward Palmer, 



Malacothrix DC. In the Flora of North America, thirty years 

 ago, and with very incomjjlete materials, I ventured to reconstruct De 

 Candolle's MalacothriXj founded on a single species in flower only, by 

 adding to it three genera which were shortly before characterized by 

 Nuttall ; and later, in Plantos Fendlerianas, I added another species of 

 anomalous aspect. The characters which confirm this view have one 

 by one come to light, except as to Nuttall's 3Ialacomeris, of which 

 nothing more is even now known. The genus was said to be " most 

 allied to Andryala." The affinity thus suggested is strengthened by 

 the discovery I have just made that the receptacle of M. commutata is 

 foveolate and fimbrillate-toothed, aud also that in other species, with 

 foveolfB not apparent, there are delicate setae, usually one to each of 

 the areolae of the receptacle, or to some of them. These are most 

 conspicuous and persistent in M. Coulteri, apparently the most anoma- 

 lous of the species, on account of its scai'ious involucre. In M. son- 

 choi'des, M. ohtusa, &c., and in the original M. Californica, they are 

 sometimes manifest (either caducous or persistent), but usually of ex- 

 treme tenuity, yet sometimes evanescent or wanting. 



In Plantae Fendlerianoe I first noticed the stronger and few or soli- 

 tary outer bristles of the pappus which characterize certain species 

 of the genus, among them the original Malacotlirix DC. The men- 

 tion of M. sonchoides was in consequence of my having confounded 

 with Nuttall's species of the Upper Platte two other more western 

 species, one of which {M. Fendleri) has this character, and the other 

 {^31. obtusa) seemed to have it. Later, Dr. Torrey, in Stansbury's 

 Report, corrected what he naturally thought an inexact statement, by 

 saying that " in M. sonchoides I believe the outer series always consists 

 oi jive bristles." Next, in Plantoe WrightiansE, part 2, when distin- 

 guishing M. Fendleri, I too hastily adopted Dr. Torrey's view, without 

 comparing his supposed 3f. sonchoides of Salt Lake, which has five or 

 more strong persistent bristles, with Nuttall's original specimen, which 

 has none. If it had, they would hardly have escaped Nuttall's atten- 

 tion, who described the whole pappus as soft and " quickly deciduous in 

 the mass." In natural consequence, Torrey's species came to be well 

 described in the Botany of King's Exploration as M. sonchoides, while 

 the real 31. sonchoides of that work, as respects the Utah specimens, is 

 described as 31. ohtusa. In rectifying the synonymy, it will be i^roper 

 to name the species which brought in this confusion 31. Torreyi, in 

 memory of its ^rst describer. 



