DESMANTIIUS BRACK YLOBUS. — ILLINOIS ACACIA. 31 



Darlington's friend, Dr. Baldwin, was appointed naturalist to the 

 exploring expedition of Major Long, Dr. Darlington wrote to 

 him jocosely, that he might perhaps find on his travels the " Dar- 

 lingtonia ignota." Dr. Baldwin died at Franklin, Missouri, before 

 the expedition had fairly started ; his successor. Dr. James, " did 

 find a species of the genus, afterwards named Darlingtonia," as 

 Dr. Darlington himself remarks in his " Reliquse Baldwinianae," 

 but only as we have seen already to be a veritable "ignota" in 

 the end. However the good Doctor had the pleasure to know 

 before he died, that a good substantial genus of Californian 

 pitcher-plants was named in his honor by Dr. Torrey, and which 

 will keep his memory much more fresh among lovers of plants 

 than ever our Dcsmant/ius would have done. 



DesnianfJius brachylobiis does not appear to have any common 

 name in our country. Aiton says at the time of its introduction 

 into England it was known as the " Illinois Acacia," the name 

 no doubt suggested by the botanical name of Michaux. It seems 

 best to adopt this name now though it is not a true Acacia, be- 

 cause it is best to put up with a name of imperfect application, 

 rather than to multiply synonyms. After all there is much more 

 appropriateness in this common name than in the common names 

 of many plants, for it is the most northern species of any near 

 representative of the Acacia tribe. It extends up the drier 

 regions of our country to the line of the Mississippi and Missouri, 

 from Texas to Kansas and Iowa, where it forms a very interest- 

 ing part of the prairie adornment of those States. It does not 

 seem to extend far in from the Mississippi on the line of a moister 

 climate towards the Adantic Ocean, for Dr. Chapman does not 

 include it in his " Flora of the Southern United States." It may 

 be noted that while our species seems to avoid moisture, one 

 species in the Eastern Hemisphere floats on water, and has been 

 named DesinantJms natans in consequence, and which, indeed, one 

 botanist endeavored to place in a new genus named from its 

 floating habit, Neptiinea. 



Almost all our commentators say Desmanthus was derived 



