73 

 NEW FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



MONOGRAPH 

 OF THE GENUS KUHNIA, 



WITH REMARKS. 



BY PROF. C. S. RAFINESQUE. 



OCTOBER 1836- 



This curious Genus has appeared to puzzle 

 many Botanists, the species being rare and lo 

 cal, have been seen by few of them, and they 

 have often copied each other, or mistaken those 

 seen. Sir James Smith has given a good ac- 

 count in Ree^ Cyclopedia, of some old blunders 

 about it ; but many more remain to be detected : 

 the original linnean species having again been 

 found on the very spot where Dr, Kuhn proba- 

 bly procured the specimen he took to Linneus, 

 affords the opportunity to do so, and to notice 

 at the same time the other kinds discovered by 

 Elliot and myself. 



Dr. Adam Kuhn was but a poor botanist and 

 hardly deserved to have such a fine Genus 

 named after him : he has written nothing ; but 

 only gave the first linnean Lectures in North 

 America. It appears that he did not even find 

 himself the first Kuhnia, but it was brought to 

 him, and he had the only merit to take it to 

 Linneus, who flattered by having a Student 

 coming to him from Pennsylvania, and struck 

 by the anomaly of the Stamina, dedicated the 

 same to him as a new Genus. Schoepf has 

 written that having applied to Dr. Kuhn to know 

 the locality of the plant, he could not tell, not 



