244 Harper : Some plants from Georgia 



(Not Melissa gr audi flora L., Calamintha grandiflora (L.) Moench 

 Clinopodhun grandiflorum (L.) Kuntze, a European species.) 

 The bibliographic history of this handsome little southern 

 shrub is even more complicated than in the case of the Verbena 

 just mentioned. The plant seems to have been first noticed u in 

 Carolina et Georgia, seats arnnem Savannah, ad urbem Augusta" 

 by Michaux, who named it Thymus carolinianus, supposing it to 

 be the same as Walter's Thymbra ? caroliniana. But according to 

 Elliott, Walter's Thymbra was identical with the type of his own 

 new genus Macbridea* (Walter's description alone would scarcely 

 suffice to identify the plant, but Elliott may have had some other 

 evidence.) Sims, however, figured a plant which is clearly the 

 same as ours, but identified it confidently with Walter's, and 

 changed the specific name so as not to conflict with Michaux's 

 Thymus carolinianus, whose identity he doubted. 



Pursh and Elliott placed the species in Calamintha, using 

 Sims's specific name, regardless of the fact that Moench had used 

 the same combination twenty years earlier for a European plant. 

 Nuttall was the first to combine Calamintha with Michaux's spe- 

 cific name, but Bentham, Chapman, Gray and the Kew Index 

 credit this binomial to Sweet, notwithstanding the fact that Sweet 



plainly refers to Nuttall, and Nuttall' s citation and description are 

 perfectly satisfactory. 



In 1 89 1 Kuntze transferred all our species of Calamintha to 

 Clinopodium, and noticing that there was already a Clinopodium 

 carolinianum (described by Miller long before Michaux's TJiymus 

 or even Walter's Thymbra), changed the specific name of our 

 plant, as he thought, but erred (presumably) in making it synony- 

 mous with Walter's Thymbra ; so if we accept Elliott's views, 

 Kuntze' s Clinopodhun Walterianum becomes a synonym of Mac- 

 bridea. A few years later Mr. Heller fell into the trap that 

 Kuntze avoided, and took upon himself the credit for the sup- 

 posed new combination Clinopodium carolinianum. Dr. Mohr in 



* Macbridea pulchra Ell.; Nutt. Gen. 2 : 36. 1818; Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. 2 : 



86. 



1 82 1 ; and most subsequent authors. 



Thymbra? caroliniana Walt. Fl. Car. 162. 1788. \JUU Ell.) 



Melittis caroliniana Spreng. Syst. 2 : 700 (in part). 1 825. 



Macbridea pulchella Benth. Lab. 505. 1834; DC. Prodr. 12: 435- 1&4&- 



Clinopodium Walterianum Kuntze, Rev. 516. 1891 (excl. syn. Sweet). 



