220 
plant is nothing but Glaucidium palmatum, a deflorous specimen of 
which was mistaken by both Siebold and Miquel to be a species of 
Hydrastis. 
It would be very inconvenient to a student of botany should such 
plants as Glaucidium pinnatum or Hydrastis jesoensis, which only 
exist in herbaria or in literature, be taken as examples in a phyto- 
geographical work, and erroneous conclusions be drawn theretrom. 
LEUCOTHOE. 
A very interesting case of the occurrence of a N. American genus 
Leucothoé in Japan was first made known by A. Gray in the year 
1859.* He described the plant as a new species calling it L. chlor- 
antha on account of the flower colour mentioned by the collector. 
He probably did not notice that there was another plant belonging 
to the same family with the same name, which is sometimes referred 
to a different genus as Agarista chlorantha. For this reason 
L. chloranthae, DC. enumeratae. Huic a LZ. chlorantha vera 
alienae, Max. Le. merito nomen ZL. Grayanae dedit, . . . 4; 
because there is no evidence that Gray took our plant for the South 
American plant and enumerated it as De. Candalle’s species. 
erhaps Grays original paper was not at Boissieu’s disposal, and 
his remark was derived from a wrong source. 
_ Maximowiezt added a new species called L. T'schonoshii, which 
is very closely related to the former species, but differs from it in a 
few not very conspicuous points. In “Les Ericacées du Japon,” 
H. de Boissieu§ enumerates two species of this genus: 1, L. T'schonos- 
kui, and 2, L. Grayana, Maxim. He remarks under the former 
species “a specie sequenti foliorum et collorae forma tantum, sed, ut 
mihi videtur, sat distincta.” As he had a good many specimens of 
the latter species, he was able to break it up into three varieties : 
a, typica, (3, intermedia, and y, Wrightiana. 
It seems to me that these authors lay too much stress on the form 
and texture of the leaf as a ground for separating species and 
varieties. But if they once visited the places where L. Grayana 
grows and examined living specimens, they would assuredly change 
their opinion, In fact in Japan there are only two species of this 
genus: one is L. Keiskei, Miq.| and the other is L. Grayana, 
Maxim. These two are endemic in J apan ; the former is distrib- 
uted over Central and South Western J apan, the latter in Central 
and Northern Japan. 
L, Keiskei scarcely varies, while L. Grayana is very polymorphic. 
As pointed out above, it is not safe to attempt to distinguish forms 
by the shape and texture of the leaf. Maximowicz also separates 
L. Tschonoshii from L, Grayana by the character of the corolla, 
* A. Gr. Botany of J; . 399. 
Maxim. in Mel. Biol, vii. B13, 
t H. de Boiss. in Bull. Herb. Boiss., v, p. 911 (1897). 
iss., Le. 
; Miq. in Ann, Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Bat., i, p. 32. 
