BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO NORTH CAROLINA. 61 
means clearly distinguished in subsequent works. The leaves 
in our specimens are oblong-lanceolate, finely acuminate, the 
margins closely beset throughout with spinulose - setaceous 
teeth ; and the rather loose spicate racemes (the corolla having 
fallen) are nearly half the length of the leaves. 
Hitherto we had searched in vain for the Astilbe decandra; 
but we first met with this very interesting plant in the rich 
and moist mountain woods between Elk Creek and Cranberry 
Forge, and subsequently in similar situations, particularly 
along the steep banks of streams, quite to the base of the 
Roan. Mr. Curtis found it abundantly near the sources of 
the Linville River, and at the North Cove, where it could not 
have escaped the notice of Michaux; and it is doubtless the 
Spirea Aruncus var. hermaphrodita of that author. It in- 
deed greatly resembles Spirwa Aruncus, and at a distance of 
a few yards is not easily distinguished from that plant, but on 
a closer approach the resemblance is much less striking. 
Michaux appears to have been the original discoverer of this 
plant, and from him the specimens cuitivated in the Malmai- 
son Garden, and described by Ventenat under the name of 
Tiarella biternata, were probably derived. It was afterwards 
collected by Lyon,! and described by Pursh from a specimen 
cultivated in Mr Lambert’s garden at Boynton. We noticed 
a peculiarity in this plant, which explains the discrepancy be- 
tween Ventenat and Pursh (the former having figured it with 
linear-spatulate petals, while the latter found it apetalous), 
and perhaps throws some additional light upon the genus. 
The flowers are dicecio-polygamous, the two forms differing 
from each other in aspect much as the staminate and pistillate 
plants of Spirwa Aruncus. In one form, the filaments are 
exserted to twice or thrice the length of the calyx, and the 
spatulate-linear petals, inconspicuous only on account of their 
narrowness, are nearly as long as the stamens; the ovaries 
1 Muhlenberg’s specimen was also received from Lyon. The only 
habitat cited in this author’s catalogue is Tennessee, and we ourselves 
collected it within the limits, as well as on the borders of that State. The 
late Dr. Mcbride found it in South Carolina, near the sources of the 
Saluda. 
