BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO NORTH CAROLINA. 57 



our plant, here just coming into blossom, had cream-colored 

 flowers, very different from those of A. uncinatum, and more 

 nearly resembling those of A. Lycoctonum. 1 On our return 

 to Jefferson, we obtained good specimens at our original 

 locality, where it is very abundant. The weak stems at first 

 ascending, become prostrate when the plant is in flower, and 

 frequently attain the length of seven or eight feet. As the 

 stem does not climb, and its flowers are so different from 

 those of A. uncinatum, it can hardly be the plant mentioned 

 by Pursh under that species, which he saw at the foot of the 

 Peaks of Otter and about the Sweet Springs in Virginia. It 

 may be remarked that the ovaries of A. uncinatum are often 

 nearly glabrous, and the claws of the petals entirely so. The 

 seeds are strongly plicate-rugose, with a wing-like margin on 

 one side. 



Near the summit of the mountain we saw immense quanti- 

 ties of a low but very large-leaved Solidago, not yet in flower, 

 which I take to be the S. glomerata of Michaux, who could 

 not have failed to observe such a conspicuous and abundant 

 plant, especially as it must have been in full blossom at the 



1 Aconitum reclinatum (spec. nov. § Lycoctonum) : caule elongato 

 decumbente f oliisque palmatifidis glabris, lobis divaricatis cuneatis apicern 

 versus incisis, racemis paniculisve divergentibus laxifloris (floribus albi- 

 dis), bracteolis minimis, galea horizontal! conico-cylindracea ore obliquo, 

 labio cucullorum obcordato ab ungue distante, caleare adunco, filamentis 

 edentulis, carpellis glabris 2-4-spermis, seminibus (immaturis) squamoso- 

 rugosis. 



Hab. in opacissimis sylvis ad montes Negro Mountain et Grandfather 

 dictos, alt. 4000-5000 pedes. Julio-Augusto floret. Caulis flaccidus, 

 adscendens vel declinatus, denique procumbens, 3-8 pedalis, ramis gracili- 

 bus, seu paniculis laxifloris, divaricatis. Folia flaccida ; inferiora longe 

 petiolata (circumscriptione suborbiculari), profunde 5-7 fida ; segmentis 

 interdum 2-3 lobatis apice incisodentatis dentibus mucronatis; summa 

 subsessilia, 3-5 partita ; venis et pagina quandoque superiori tenu- 

 issime pubescentibus. Pedicelli sparsi (pedunculique puberuli) flore 

 longiores, bracteolis 2-3 minimis stipati. Flores minores quam in A. 

 Lycoctono, albi vix flavidis tincti (in siccis leviter purpurascentes) ; sepalis 

 intus pilis aureis barbatis. Galea primum adscendens, mox horizontalis, 

 rostello brevi ractiusculo. Unguis petalorum medium cuculli adfixus ; 

 saccus angustus, ore valde obliquo in labium obcordatum expanso. 

 Ovaria tria, 4-6-ovulata. 



