PHACELIA BIPINNATIFIDA. BIPINNATE rflACELIA. 



DD 



and there is nothing whatever to associate his name with the 

 history of the plant, unless some botanical antiquary digs it out 

 from the mass of synonyms under which so much lies buried. 

 It does not seem fair, but it is the law of botany, and indeed it is 

 one of those necessities which must be submitted to. Several 

 supposed genera, as for instance CosmantJms, Whitlavia and 

 Eufoca, which once had severally many species under their 

 names, are all now regarded by Dr. Gray as sections of Phacdia, 

 and this is why the genus seems to have grown so large as it is 

 at the present time. 



Our pretty species, Phacdia bipinnatijida, has litde to boast of 

 in the way of popular history ; but it will commend itself to all 

 lovers of wild flowers by its simple beauty. It does not appear 

 to have been nodced by the older botanists ; Michaux in his 

 "Flora of North America," in 1803, being the first to name and 

 describe it, probably from Kentucky specimens. It is subject to 

 some variadons, one of sufficient character to have been regarded 

 as a distinct species. This is Phacdia brcvistylis of Buckley, 

 though now only a variety of Gray, while still retaining its 

 original specific name. This pardcular variety was found in 

 Alabama by Professor S. B. Buckley, now the State Geologist 

 of Texas. In its geographical relations it is found according to 

 Professor Gray, in his " Synopsis," " in the shaded banks of 

 streams, from Ohio and Illinois to Alabama." It does not seem 

 to extend to the lower lands near the coast, and is probably 

 not usually met with by collectors along what might be properly 

 called the seaboard States. Darby, in his " Botany of the 

 Southern States," does not include it even in so late an edition 

 as 1866. Dr. Chapman has it in his "Flora," but confines it to 

 " shaded banks in Alabama and North Carolina." Professor 

 Wood finds it in " woods and hill-sides, Pennsylvania, to Indiana 

 (Plummer), Missouri and Ohio." We may gather from all this 

 that it favors a mountain region, and is partial to the shade of 

 open woods. In the "Botanical Gazette" for 1876, the editor 

 nodces very singular behavior in the plant in his section, Jeffer- 



