THE KENTUCKY FLORA 
LAWSON. 305 
Florida,” is really essentially southern in its range, occurring 
sparingly on the banks of the Humber near Toronto, (only one 
bush six or seven feet high was seen in 1860,) and a few other 
favoured spots in the extreme southern parts of the Province of 
Ontario. 
There is also the spice-bush, Lindera Benzoin, of Meissner 
in DeCandolle’s Prodromus, and of Hortus Kewensis, iii, p. 89, 
located in the latter as “Am. Bor.” This is not Adamson’s 
genus Lindera (1763), now referred to Myrvhis, Tourn., (Umbel- 
liferze), but that established later by Thunberg, Diss. Nov. Gen., 
iii, p. 44, (1783). This is the Lawrus Benzoin of Linneus, Sp. 
Plantarum, p. 370, amplified by Michaux in the Fl. Bor. Am. into 
L. pseudo-Benzovn, for the obvious purpose of preventing con- 
fusion of this lauraceous plant with a conspicuous one belonging 
to the Styracacew, viz., the Siamese Styrax Benzoin of Dryander 
(Phil. Trans., Ixxvii, 308, t. 12,) which yields gum benzoin, and 
was called Benzoin officinale by Hayne. (Buchanan-Hamilton 
used the name Laurus Benzoin, according to Wallich’s Cata- 
logue of Indian plants, for Cinnamomum obtusifolium). 
Our American plant, which forms a bush from eight to ten 
feet high, was named benzoin odoriferum by Nees von Esenbeck 
(Laurin., 497). The berries yield an aromatic oil; the wood and 
bark are also highly aromatic, and, as this plant is said to have 
been used in the United States during the first American war, 
as a substitute for allspice, it may be responsible for the 
American tradition of wooden nutmegs. It is known by the 
several names of spice-bush, spice-wood, spice-berry, fever-wood, 
&e. Dr. Lindley, in Flora Medica, indicates its range thus: 
Low moist places, damp shady woods, from Canada to Florida. 
Rhus copallina, Sumach. 
Azalea lutea. 
Vitis aestivulis—The Summer Grape. The bunches bore 
bunches of ripe fruit, from the seeds of which plants are being 
raised for comparison with more northern forms. 
flex opaca.—The American Holly, a species that closely 
resembles in habit, its bright shining evergreen foliage, the 
