vat ey As 
pod 
x 
of rigs 
: 
BP Be gt 
i 
* Notice on Myosurus Shortii. 379 
different. The etymology of the name which I have given to 
it, derives from many irregularities. It belongs in the analytical 
‘method of botany, to the first natural class Eltrogymia, ninth nat- 
ural order Monostimia, natural family Capparidia. It can find 
‘no place in the sexual system since .the number of tome va- 
rises from 9 to 14,unless it be forced into Dodecandria. 
Polanisia graveolens. Clammy polanisia—hairy and _ glutin- 
ous all over, stem upright, leaves alternate, petiolate, ternated, 
folioles sessile, the intermediate longest, oblong, obtuse, entire, 
hairy on the margin and nerves: flowers racemose erect, 
bracteas petiolate, ovate, obtuse, calyx hairy, petals emargin- 
ate, crenate, capsules divaricate glutinous. 
It is the Cleome dodecandra of Michaux and Pursh. It grows 
on the banks of rivers and lakes, on the Hudson near New- 
burgh, on the Susquehannah near Harrisburg, on Lake Erie, 
on the Ohio, and Mississippi, &c. It blossoms in July, and Au- 
gust, the stem rises about 1 foot, the petals are white, or 
slightly red. The whole plant has a strong graveolent smell, 
Similar to that of Erigeron graveolens. (Received January 
1818. Editor.) 
Arr. X. Notice onthe Myosurus Shortit. 
I HAVE the pleasure to announce to the botanists, that the ~ 
genus Myosurus, hitherto thought an European genus, and 
composed of a single species, has been detected in the United 
States by Dr. Short of Kentucky, who has discovered it in the 
neighborhood of Hopkinsville, in Christian county, West 
Kentucky, and has communicated me specimens of it; by 
which, on comparing them with the European Myosurus, 
figured in Flora Danica, Lamarck’s Illustrations, &c. I have 
been enabled to ascertain, that the American plant must form 
a second species of that genus, which I have accordingly dedi-| 
cated it to the discoverer, by making it Myosurus Shortii. This 
adds another genus and another new species to our Flora. I 
add the comparative definitions of the two species, exhibiting 
their different characters and diagnosis. 
