44 Botanical Excursion to the Mountains of North Carolina. 
As to the species from which Mr. Bentham derived the generic 
name, (Pycnanthemum Monardella, Michz.,) 1 am by no means 
certain that it belongs either to Pyenanthemum or Monardella. 
The specimen in the Michauxian herbarium is not out of flower, 
as has been thought, but nap inflorescence is undeveloped, and. 
perhaps in an abnormal state. In examining a small portion 
taken from the head, I fount nothing but striate-nerved bracts, 
obtuse and villous at the apex, and abruptly awned ; the exterior 
involucrate and often lobed; the innermost linear, and tipped 
with a single awn. ‘The aspect of the plant, also, is so like Mo- | 
narda fistulosa, that I am strongly inclined to think it a some- 
what monstrous state of that, or some nearly allied species; in 
which case, the genus Monardella should be restricted to the Cali- 
fornian ~ Pursh’s P. Monardella, 1 may observe, was col- 
lected beneath the Natural Bridge in Virginia, where we also ob- 
tained the plant, and subsequently met with it throughout the 
mountains. “It is certainly a form of Monarda fistulosa, accord- 
ing to Mr. Bentham’s characters ; but the taste is much less pun- 
gent, the throat of the calyx less strongly bearded than is usual 
in that species, and the*corolla nearly white: We thought it 
probably a distinct species; but these differences may be ow- 
ing to the aor shade in which it commonly occurs. The P. 
Monardella ‘of Elliott, according to his herbarium, is identical 
with that of Parsh. We collected in Ashe County several other * 
species of Pycnanthemum, and in the endeavor to discriminate 
them, we encountered so many difficulties that Iam indwees to 
ave a revision of the whole Benue. sd 
= Sonia PYCNANTHEMORUM. 
82 ap ait dentibus bracteisque subulato-arist atis, rigidis, nudis, corollam 
Sees P4 i densi plerumque. terminales. Ovaria barbata. Folia ie, 
a 
1, P. ARISTATUM ciel ees pekenoe  netelaia ovato-oblongis a is subserratis 
basi rotu tenuissi osis vel g ‘gp. pnts Nutt. 
in j jour. oi Philad. 7. p. 100, ae a Pak ‘OHgannin incanum, Walt. herb. 
~ Hab. a Nova Calieed ‘ad Floridam.—Folia floralia nune presen * 
= P. HYSSOPIFOLIUM (Benth.) : foliis eer Westie x tusis subinteger- 
in ue glabris vel tenuissime subtom jean aceg aristatum, Pursh, 
pi 1 sae arcte sone 
pire ane 
