108 Observations on the North American Gratiola. 



7. Anagallidea of Michaux. Of this species I can say but 

 little, having only once casually seen it, without particularly 

 examining it. The description we have in the Flora Boreali- 

 Americana is as follows : " Erect, very smooth ; stem tetrago- 

 nal : leaves oblong-oval, sparingly denticulate, shorter than 

 the flowers : calyx without bracts, subulate, pubescent : 

 corolla internally smooth : leaves most commonly obtuse : 

 corolla pale bluish." The plant which I saw had very small 

 whitish flowers with violet veins. 



Mr. Elliott's G. tetragona, if it be a Gratiola, may be this 

 species of Michaux. He describes his plant as being " smooth, 

 with a procumbent tetragonal stem rooting at the joints : 

 leaves sessile, lanceolate, acute, from fouT to six-toothed, ob- 

 scurely three-nerved : peduncles two or three lines long, 

 tetragonal : calyx leaves equal, linear, finely serrate, corolla 

 white with coloured streaks, (what colour ?) capsule oblong, 

 acute, somewhat compressed and oblique, as long as the calyx. 



I am aware that all our American botanists have been in 

 the habit of considering the G. anagallidea, the same as the 

 Lindernia attenuata. But neither Michaux, nor the dis- 

 tinguished gentleman who assisted him in the publication of 

 his work, could have confounded two genera so unlike in every 

 respect. Mr. Elliott's G. tetragona may be something differ- 

 ent from what I have supposed it to be ; for he has confounded 

 our present genus with Herpestis, in a very remarkable 

 manner ; nor has he left that genus in a much better state. 



The G. acuminata of Mr. Elliott is the Herpestis cuneifolia ; 

 his H. cuneifolia the H. Brownei; his H. rotundifolia the 

 jFf. amplexicaulis and his H. micrantha the Hemianthiiz 

 micranthemoides of Nuttall. 



