BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO NORTH CAROLINA. 67 



a few specimens of Pycnanthemum montanum, Michx. (Mo- 

 nardella, Benth.) just coming into blossom. Our plant ac- 

 cords with Michaux's description, except that there are fre- 

 quently two or even three axillary heads besides the terminal 

 one. The flowers have altogether the structure of Pycnanthe- 

 mum, and the upper lip of the corolla is entire ; so that it 

 cannot belong to Monardella, although placed as the leading 

 species of that genus. As to the species from which Mr. Bent- 

 ham derived the generic name (Pycnanthemum Monardella, 

 Michx.), I am by no means certain that it belongs either to 

 Pycnanthemum or Monardella. The specimen in the Mi- 

 chauxian herbarium is not out of flower, as has been thought, 

 but the inflorescence is undeveloped, and perhaps in an abnor- 

 mal state. In examining a small portion taken from the head, 

 I found nothing but striate-nerved bracts, obtuse and villous 

 at the apex, and abruptly awned ; the exterior involucrate 

 and often lobed ; the innermost linear, and tipped with a sin- 

 gle awn. The aspect of the plant, also, is so like Monarda 

 fistulosa, that I am strongly inclined to think it a somewhat 

 monstrous state of that, or some nearly allied species ; in 

 which case, the genus Monardella should be restricted to the 

 Californian species. Pursh's P. Monardella, I may observe, 

 was collected beneath the Natural Bridge in Virginia, where 

 we also obtained the plant, and subsequently met with it 

 throughout the mountains. It is certainly a form of Monarda 

 fistulosa, according to Bentham's characters, but the taste is 

 much less pungent, the throat of the calyx less strongly 

 bearded than is usual in that species, and the corolla nearly 

 white. We thought it probably a distinct species ; but these 

 differences may be owing to the deep shade in which it com- 

 monly occurs. The P. Monardella of Elliott, according to 

 his herbarium, is identical with that of Pursh. We collected 

 in Ashe County several other species of Pycnanthemum, and 

 in the endeavor to discriminate them, we encountered so 

 many difficulties that I am induced to give a revision of the 

 whole genus. 



Some additional plants were obtained around Jefferson 

 which were not previously in blossom, such as Campanula 



