‘ 
ae 
38 Botenical Iedtersiets te the Mountains of North Carolina. 
and subsequently in similar nen particularly along the 
steep banks of streams, quite to the base of the Roan. Mr. Curtis 
found it abundantly near the sources mn the Linville River, and 
at the North Cove, where it could not have escaped the notice 
of Michaux; and it is doubtless the Spirea Aruncus var, her- 
maphrodita of that author.. It indeed greatly resembles Spirea 
Aruncus, and at a distance of a few yards is not easily distin- 
guished from that plant, but on a closer approach the -resem- 
blance i is much less striking. Michaux appears to have been the 
It was afterwards collected by Lyon,* and describak oy Pursh 
i a specimen cultivated in Mr. Lambert’s garden at Boynton, 
We noticed a peculiarity in this plant, which explains the dis- 
crepancy ‘between Ventenat and Pursh, (the former having fig- 
ured it with linear-spatulate petals, while-the latter found it apet- 
alous,) and perhaps throws some additional light upon the genus. | 
The flowers are diwcto-polygamous, the two forms differing from : 
each other in aspect much as the staminate and. pistillate plants | 
of Spirea Aruncus. In one form, the filaments are exserted to | 
twice or thrice the length of the calyx, and the ‘spatulate-linear 
petals, inconspicuous only on account of their narrowness, are =~ 
nearly as long as the stamens: the ovaries are well-formed and 
filled with ovules, which, however, so far as I have observed, are 
never fertilized ; and the stigmas are smaller than in the fertile | 
plant, and not papillose. In the other or fertile form, both the | 
stamens and the petals are in au abortive or rudimentary state, ~ a 
and being shorter than the sepals, and concealed by them in dried ——— 
specimens, are readily overlooked; the stigmas are large, trun- 7 
cate, and papillose, and a pactien: of the ovules. become fertile. ' 
The Japanese species (Hoteta Japonica, Morr. & Decaisne, the 
Spiraea Aruneus of 'Thunberg,) appears to have uniform and 
perfect flowers ;+ but the species from Nepal ( Astilbe pen | 
'* Muhlenberg’s specimen was also received from Lyon. The only habitat 
cited in this author’s Catalogue is Tennessee, and we ourselves collected it within 
the limits, as well as on the borders of that State. The late Dr. Macbride found it 
in South Carolina, near the sources of the Saluda, | 
