52 PEOCEEDI]S"GS OF THE 



ABSTEACTS. 



I. 



Note on the Distribution of the Genus Shortia, Torr. & Gray. 

 By B. Datdon Jackson, Gen. Sec. L.S. 



[Eead loth February, 1906.] 



At the General Meeting held on the 7th December, 1905, 

 Mr. W. T. Hindmarsh, F.L.S., sent photographs of a plant of 

 Shortia unijiora in cultivation in his garden at Alnwick. In the 

 discussion which followed, enquiry was raised as to the number of 

 species contained in the genus, and the present short paper is an 

 attempt to answer the question then put. 



The original species, S. galaeifolia, was collected in Carolina by 

 Michaux, in fruit, and described by Asa Gray from the single 

 specimen at Paris, in 1839 ; the plant was not again found till 

 iiearly a century after the first discovery, and then in McDowell 

 County, in South-west Virginia. The original station has since 

 been found again by referring to Michaux's manuscript journal, as 

 recounted in the ' Botanical Magazine,' t. 7082. 



The second species, S. unijiora, was at first placed under the 

 closely allied genus ScMzocodon, it was found in the province of 

 Shinano, Nippon ; and a third, S. sinensis, is recorded from 

 Mengtze, Yunnan, 



Investigation of the material contained in the national herbaria 

 of Kew and the British Museum, seems to point out that there 

 are three good species of Shortia (noted above) ; one doubtful one, 

 S. rotmidifolia, described by Maximowicz as iSehizocodon, but the 

 corolla not seen by him ; and Shortia thibetica, more appropriately 

 placed as a monotypic genus. 



The distinctions between the allied genera, Shortia, Scliizocodon, 

 and Berneuxia are not very strongly marked in every case, but 

 the following lists may be of some use. 



Beeneuxia, Decne. in Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. xx. (1873) 159. 

 thibetica, Decne. I. c. — Mupin. 



Syn. Shortia thibetica, Franch. 



SoHizocoDON, Sieb. & Zucc. in Abh. Akad. Muench. iii. (1843) 



723, t. 2. 

 ilicifolius, Maxim, in Bidl. Acad. Petersb. xii. (1868) 71. — 



Japon. 

 rotuudifolius, Maxim. 1. c. xxxii. (1888) 497. — Ins. Meiaco 



Sima. 

 soldanelloides, Sieb. S,' Zucc. I. c. — Japon. 

 uniflorus, Maxim, in Bull. Acad. Petersb. xii. (1868) 71 = 



Shortia uuiflora, Maxim. 



