GEOGRAPHICAL BOTANY. 391 



stems, consisting of the Vaccinia and Rubi, forming the 

 underwood, and other botanical forms, with which Bon- 

 gard's sketch has made us acquainted. 



After an interval of two years, the third part of the 

 second volume of Torrey and Asa Gray's 'Mora of 

 North America/ containing the completion of the Synan- 

 theraceee, has appeared. A. Braun has described the 

 Equiseta and Charte of North America (Silliman's Journal 

 of Science, vol. xlvi). Mac Nab read before the Edin- 

 burgh Botanical Society a botanical journal, which he had 

 kept at Hudson (Ann. Nat. Hist., xiv, pp. 223-25). 



Asa Gray has continued the report upon his botanical 

 journey in the south of Alleghany (London Journ. of 

 Bot. 1844, pp. 230-42). On the summit of the Roan, 

 in Tennessee, the altitude of which is 6000', Rhododen- 

 dron Catawbiense forms a fertile subalpine shrubby forma- 

 tion, the turf of which consists of Carex Pennsylvanica 

 and other species of this genus, with Aira flexuosa and 

 Juncus tennis. Beneath the shrubs, Lilium, Veratrum, 

 Potentilla, Geum, some Ranuneulacese, Umbelliferse, Saxi- 

 frageae, and Solidago, with Rudbeckia, Liatris, &c. ? are 

 mentioned. The remaining woody plants, in addition to 

 the Rhododorese and Rosaceae, mentioned in the Annual 

 Report for 1842, consisted of Pyrus arbutifolia, Cratcegm 

 pnnctata, Ribes rotundifolium, Diervilla trifida, Vaccinium 

 Constablcei n. sp., and Alnus crispa. Pinus Fraseri is 

 the tree which extends to the greatest altitude ; it occurs 

 near the summit in a dwarf and crooked form. At the 

 end, A. Gray describes the new genus Shortia (yala- 

 cifolid) from specimens in fruit in the herbarium of 

 Michaux, who discovered it on the mountains of Carolina. 

 It has not since been found, and its flowers are unknown. 

 This remarkable plant unites the habit of Pyrola uniflora 

 with the leaves of Galax. Nuttall described another 

 genus (Simmondia) from S. Diego, in Upper California, 

 as a new type of the Garryacese (1. c. p. 400, t. 16). 

 The collections of Hinds (Ann. Rep. for 1842) have 

 afforded the matter for an important systematic illustrated 



