70 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



The importance of the collection was early recognized by American 

 botanists. Pursh (Fl. Amer. Sept., pref. xvii : 1S14) consulted it 

 when it was in the possession of the sons of John Fraser, and quotes 

 some of the names in it in his book. It seems to have attracted but 

 little attention from English botanists, as when Asa Gray made 

 inquiries for it on his first visit to England in 1839, Brown and 

 Bentham knew nothing of it ; Lindley, however, discovered it in the 

 possession of John Fraser, who sent it to the Horticultural Society's 

 rooms for Gray's inspection. Gray* gives an account of it in the 

 Journal which he wrote for John Torrey : he found " the examination 

 very tedious, as the specimens are very often not labelled, except 

 with the genus in his [Walter's] ' Flora,' so that I have first to make 

 out his own species, and then what they are of succeeding authors. 

 The specimens are mostly mere bits, pasted down in a huge folio 

 volume. I suspect this was done by Fraser, and the labels have 

 sometimes been exchanged, so that it requires no little patience. 

 Some of the things I most wished to see are not in the collection, and 

 there are several in the collection which are not mentioned in the 

 ' Flora.' You would laugh to see what some of the things are that 

 have puzzled us : thus, for instance, his ' Cucubalus polypetalus ' is 

 Saponaria officinalis'., his ' Dianthus carolinianus ' is JTraseral in 

 fruit." Gray is probably right in his identification of the wretched 

 specimen of " C. polypetalus" with Saponaria — though Pursh (Fl. 

 Amer. Sept., 316) had doubtfully referred it to his Silene ovata, 

 which is based on a specimen in Herb. Banks endorsed : " Cherrokee 

 Countrey, W. V. Turner, 1769 : Indian name Ounenake Ounostaatse — 

 White root" : but the Dianthus is not Frasera, but Dodecatheon 

 JSLeadia. Gray made notes on the collection which, or a copy, he 

 sent to Torrey ; if these are anywhere preserved, their publication 

 would be of considerable interest. 



Since the herbarium came into the possession of the Department 

 of Botany it has been consulted by most American botanists who 

 have visited this country : on its pages are the names or initials of 

 Asa Gray (at a later date than that of his first inspection), A. A. 

 Eaton, L. H. Bailey, N. L. Britton, C. S. Sargent, Oakes Ames, 

 S. F. Blake, and Miss A. M. Vail. Mr. A. S. Hitchcock published 

 in the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Missouri Botanic Garden 

 (pp. 31-56) the identification of Walter's Grasses, and Mr. Blake in 

 the course of a paper on " Some Neglected Names in Walter's Flora 

 Carol liniana" (Hhodora, xvii. pp. 129-137: 1915) has notes upon 

 some of the specimens. 



The MS. of the Flora, as is generally known, was brought to 

 England at the beginning of 1788 by John Fraser and published by 

 him in London in that year at his own expense. The somewhat 

 lengthy title may be worth transcribing, as it indicates the extent of 

 the work and its somewhat ambitious scope : " Flora Caroliniana, 

 secundum Systema Vegetabilium perillustris Linnrei digesta ; charac- 

 ters essentiales naturalesve et differentias veras exhibens ; cum 

 emendationibus numerosis : descriptionum antea evulgatarum : adum- 



* Letters of Asa Gray. i. 134-6 (1893). 



