RECENT BOTANICAL LITERATURE. 47 
tence above quoted and the essentially personal one immedi- 
ately preceding it. I quote again: “Mr. Watson has indicated 
(in Proc. Am. Acad. xx. 356) the near approach which one 
species of Calyptridium makes to this otherwise peculiar 
genus; and Professor Greene has consequently united the 
genera.” It would not appear to be of much importance, sci- 
entifieally considered, whether Professor Greene is or is not 
aceustomed to wait, on his side the continent, for hints to come 
from the opposite shore, as to whither among his western hills 
he may go and find a weak genus to suppress, or an unrecognized 
one to raise up. He does not deem an elaborate defense of 
himself in this ease worth making. I should have passed this 
by in silence, I think, if Professor Gray had been as careful 
to tell his readers where my remarks on Spraguea* were to 
be seen as he was to indieate where the hints had been given 
of which, he says, my action in the matter was a consequence. 
Really, that whieh broke the back of Spraguea is a certain 
rare plant which Mr. Watson has never mentioned, if indeed 
he has ever examined it, and which, it is evident, Professor 
Gray has not yet looked into with that careful scrutiny which 
some of us have deemed it worthy of. Of this plant, Calyp- 
tridium paniculatum, he now says he can make nothing but 
a casual variation of * Spraguea umbellata.” It needs no 
more than a casual glance to discover the difference between 
8 panieulate and an umbellate inflorescence ; and that is some- 
thing. But the zealous lady to whom the botanical world is 
indebted, not only for the rediscovery of the rare plant in 
question, but also for all the good specimens of it now extant 
in herbaria, indicates (in Bull. Cal. Acad. i. 182) some marks 
of its flowers and seeds which would show it to be fortified as 
a species by a strength of character quite unusual in the order. 
What difference could be more decisive than that between a 
reniform and an oval seed ? I am not saying that I have ex- 
amined the plant and verified these things. I would only cài 
attention to the fact that such statements have been made, 
* Bulletin Torr. Club. xiii. 143. 
