170 



yf New York 



i 



The leaves vary greatly in size, and when young are white and 

 mealy beneath, in which state it has a resemblance to C glau- 

 cum. By American botanists it has been very commonly referred 

 to C. rub rum, L. ( Blitum polymorphum, C. A. Mey.) a very dif- 

 ferent plant, with vertical fruit, and of which I have seen no 

 American specimen. The " C. urbicum, L. ?" of Fl. Bor.-Am., 

 under which is cited C. intermedium, Mert. and Koch, is C. hy- 

 bridum, L., as I ascertain from an authentic specimen in Dr. Tor- 

 rey's Herbarium, labelled " C. intermedium, FL Bor.-Am" In- 

 deed, Hooker remarks that the plant " exactly accords with the 

 C, hybridum" of the English Botany ; and that it was what he 

 had " received from the American botanists as C. hybridum: but 

 that species has a more panicled inflorescence with divaricating 

 branches. 7 ' In this particular the plant probably varies with growth 

 as it certainly does in some other characters. I have two varie- 

 ties from my friend, Mr. S. T. Olney, of Rhode Island ; one with 

 a green stem, naked panicles, and leaves cordate at the base ; the 

 other with a red stem, somewhat leafy panicles, and leaves acute 

 at the base. C henopodium, intermedium, Mert. and Koch, is ad- 

 duced by Moq.-Tand. as a variety (7. intermedium) under C urbi- 

 cum, and the short character he gives would not seem applicable 

 to C. hybridum. I have not, however, the means of determining 

 this discrepancy in the synonymy. I do not remember to have 

 noticed C. hybridum in the suburbs of New York, though it doubt- 

 less occurs there, as I have observed it growing at Hoboken. In- 

 deed, it is probable that these homely weeds are often overlooked 

 or mistaken, where they are not uncommon. C.murale,h., hitherto 

 considered rare, I find growing about the waste lots, in this city, 

 and at Hoboken ; and have received it from Mr. Olney, who col- 

 lects it about Providence. 1 also find it in the Herbarium of Dr. 

 Torrey, from Prof. Short of Kentucky, together with G* hybri- 

 dum, the latter gathered "amongst the almost inaccessible cliffs 

 of the Kentucky river." It is certainly difficult to determine 

 which of these species should be considered as strictly native 

 plants, but, although the whole are arbitrarily excluded by Nuttall, 

 there seems no good reason why some of them, at least, should 

 be less so than the common species of Ambrina, which, he asserts, 

 "only are indigenous." 



New York, November 30, 1848. 



mens I collected for examination were picked at the entrance to the wharves and 



woodvards «f Kensington, where it occurs frequently. * * * I have not seen 

 it in fruit, the plant having quite disappeared when I sought it again in the No- 

 vember following. * * Chenopodium muraic grew near our starting point at 

 -Camden (New Jersey) ; an apparently uncommon plant in America, and perhapi 

 introduced. I remarked it, however, in some plenty under walls at the Cnstle 

 -Garden in New York, and very commonly about Norfolk, Virginia, corresponding 

 exactly with specimens from the Isle of Wight."~i/<?o&. Land. Journ. Bot., JUpril, 

 1848, p. 211. 



