SEQUOIA AND ITS HISTORY. 223 



Whether the Asiatic and the Atlantic American gin- 

 sengs are to be regarded as of the same species or not 

 is somewhat uncertain, but they are hardly, if at all, 

 distinguishable. 



There is a shrub, Elliottia, which is so rare and local 

 that it is known only at two stations on the Savannah 

 River in Georgia. It is of peculiar structure, and was 

 without near relative until one was lately discovered 

 in Japan (Tripetaleia), so like it as hardly to be dis- 

 tinguishable except by having the parts of the blossom 

 in threes instead of fours — a difference not uncommon 

 in the same genus, or even in the same species. 



Suppose Elliottia had happened to be collected only 

 once, a good while ago, and all knowledge of the lim- 

 ited and obscure locality were lost; and meanwhile 

 the Japanese form came to be known. Such a case 

 would be parallel with an actual one. A specimen of 

 a peculiar plant (Shortia galacifolia) was detected in 

 the herbarium of the elder Michaux, who collected it 

 (as his autograph ticket shows) somewhere in the high 

 Alleghany Mountains, more than eighty years ago. 

 No one has seen the living plant since or knows 

 where to find it, if haply it still flourishes in some 

 secluded spot. At length it is found in Japan ; and 

 I had the satisfaction of making the identification. 1 

 A relative is also known in Japan ; and a less near one 

 has just been detected in Thibet. 



Whether the Japanese and the Alleghanian plants 

 are exactly the same or not, it needs complete speci- 

 mens of the two to settle. So far as we know, they 



» American Journal of Science, 1867, p. 402; "Proceedings of 

 American Academy," vol. viii., p. 244. 



