THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 



45 



older writers, such as Pursh, Hooker and Goldie, which have not 

 since been seen. This is possibly due to two facts, first, that the 

 region has been but comparatively little explored by botanists, and 

 second, that these writers did not give any very definite localities to 

 aid one in the search, In many cases the sole reference to guide us 

 is Canada or Western Canada, both of which, as you are well aware, 

 are pretty extensive localities to cover. It is possible, also, that 

 some of the species have been incorrectly named. The number of 

 such species is 22, ami it is to these I would now particularly call 

 your attention. Indeed, such is the main object of this paper, for it 

 is very necessary in the interests of botanical research that these 

 species, if existing, should be more definitely relocated. Any of 

 you, interested in botany, and having a holiday, cannot do better 

 than spend it on some part of the Erie shore. You are liable to 

 come across some of these, or new, floral rarities at any moment, 

 and, even if you do not, I can promise you that you will be amply 

 repaid with vasculums or presses stocked with some of the least 

 common of Canadian plants. Do not let the fact that such plants 

 have been so long hidden deter you or make you doubt their occur- 

 rence there. In even comparatively well botanized districts, with 

 almost an army of scientists engaged in the search, it is possible for 

 a plant to remain concealed for years. A notable example of this 

 is seen in the rare American shrub Shortia galacifolia. Over a hun- 

 dred years ago, viz. in 1788, the elder Michaux, on a journey into 

 the mountains of North Carolina in search of living plants of 

 the rare Magnolia cordata, collected somewhere on those mountains 

 a specimen of an Ericaceous plant, out of flower but with immature 

 fruit. In 1839 Dr. Gray found and examined, in Michaux's herbar- 

 ium, this specimen, the exact locality for which was unfortunately not 

 recorded, and on it founded, in 1*542, a new genus, Shortia, so called 

 in honor of Dr. Chas. W. Short of Kentucky. Lyon, Curtis, Gray, 

 and c host of less noted botanists, in vain traversed the Carolina 

 mountains to rediscover Michaux's locality for the species, but it 

 was not until May, 1877, that Mr. Geo. Hyams found it on a hill- 

 side in McDowell County, North Carolina, east of the Black Moun- 

 tain. For several years after this was supposed to be the only sta- 

 tion for the species, and, to the regret of all botanists, the plants were 

 few in number. In 1886, however, a r.i;w station was discovered by 

 Mr. Kelsey on the banks of the lower Whitewater River, in Jocassse 



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