34 Some Eayhj Philadelphia Botanists — Leonard. 



forms which he had never seen. Futhermore, by dissecting the 

 works of such men as Pursh, Nuttall, Elliott, Torrey, etc., he con- 

 verted their doubtful forms into new species. Thus out of Dr. 

 Torrey's account of the plants collected by Dr. James in Long's 

 expedition, Rafinesqne constructed 30 new genera. He furnishes 

 probably the only instance of a botanist persistently desiring to 

 dedicate a genus to himself. The genus proposed just as persist- 

 ently refused to stand, and in despair he provides half a dozen 

 Eafinesquias from which botanists may take their choice. None 

 of these are to be found in the last edition of Gray's Manual. 



Of the 3,000 new genera which this botanist boasts of having 

 established only a paltry 13 have stood the fire of criticism in the 

 region covered by Gray's Manual, viz: — 



Adlumia — Climbing Fumitory (Fumariacae.) 

 Polanisia— Polanisia (Caper Family.) 

 Cladrastis — Yellow Wood (Leguminosae.) 

 Osmorrhiza — Sweet Cicely (Umbelliferae.) 

 Lepachys — ( Compositae. ) 



Erechthites— Fireweed '' 



Ilysanthes — (Scrophulariaceae) 



Blephilia — Blephilia — (Labiatae.) 

 Peltandra — ArroAV Arum — ( Araceae.) 

 Clintouia— Clintonia — (Liliaceae.) 

 Diarrhena — Diarrhea a — (Gramineae.) 

 Eatonia — " 



Pachystima 



And of all these Bentham and Hooker have slain some. [Of 

 these genera, nine, viz., Polanisia Osmorrhiza, Erecthites, Lepachys, 

 Diarrhena, Eatonia, Ilj^santhes, Blephilia, Clintonia are found in 

 the catalogue of the plants of Minnesota now being brought up to 

 date by Mr. Warren Upham.] 



While deserving credit for being an excellent and inde- 

 fatigable observer, Rafinesque should undoubtedly be held up 

 before the young botanist of today as the type of a species maker 

 whose tendency was to so magnify every slightest deviation from 

 the type that to him it meant a new genus or species. 



The results of Rafinesque's labors remaining to us today are 

 to be found in the botanical museum of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Phila., being that portion of his herbarium containing 

 the specimens from which descriptions in his Medical Flora 

 have been made; presented by Mr. Wm. Hembel. 



