^2i iiliNUS GLYGINB. 



[AugusC 



OMervations on the genus glycine, and some of its 

 kindred genera. By Stephen Elliott^ of Charles- 

 ton^ S. C. Read June S3, 1818. 



Til encIiBavouring to examine, and reform, the cliarac- 

 iers of plants, an inhabitant of this country feels sen- 

 sibly the disadvantages under which he labours. 

 ^Fhere are here no Botanic Gardens, where living 

 plants, collected from different countries and climates, 

 Biay be collated paid compared ; no large herbariums, 

 v/liciT even specimens may be examined ; and no large, 

 libraries* devoted to natural history, where figures, 

 might sometimes serve to explain and illustrate an ob- 

 scare or doubtful plant. I shall not, therefore, at- 

 tempt to arrange all the species which have hitherto 

 been throvvU together in the genus Glycine^ but shall 

 cunfiue myself, in this paper, to those native plants of 

 Noi:tli America ^vliich I ha^e had an opportunity of in- 

 speclingi 



The genus Glycine appears to have served for some 

 time, in tlic class Diadelphia, the same purposes 

 "vvliich the genus Sojphora answered in tlie class Eecan- 

 dria; to have been an ill defined genus, vvhere every 

 plant, (some scarcely hiiidred species) which did not, 

 by marlced characters^ belong to other known ge- 

 nera, foaUd a resting place. In this manner the spe- 

 cies have increased from two to forty-four, and now 

 present an assemblage of ill associated plants. Many 

 late writerG have noticed some of the anomalies of this 

 ^enus, but no oiio, 1 believe, has yet attempted a*r3.di- 



