156 THE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 



For clearness' sake let me give an example: In the fifth edition of 

 Gray's own work, Manual of Botany,' that part of the description 

 which relates to the inflorescence reads, "spikelets solitary or in a 

 simple raceme at the summit of the branches or frequently on 

 leafless radical culms." At the end of this text we find the word 

 "Chapman" and from this we learn that the foregoing statement 

 is not based on Gray's own observations, but that it is accredited 

 to the authority of Chapman. Thus it might seem that the citation 

 of the diagnosis should have been more justly quoted from Chap- 

 man's own work, but let me emphasize the fact that Gray himself is 

 not guilty of the violation attributable to the recent authors 

 whose work sails somewhat under the protection of Gray's au- 

 thority, since his name is associated with the title of the book. 

 The wording in Chapman's original work. The Flora of the Southern 

 United States,^ is literally the same and needs no repetition. 



Upon Chapman's authentical and precise diagnosis we musi 

 assume that the flowers may appear on both parts of the plant, 

 namely, on the branches of the leafy culms and on the distinct 

 radical culms. The text in Robinson and Fernald's Gray's New 

 Manual^ reads, "panicles of few spikelets on long slender branches\" 

 The wording difi"ers from that of the old Manual but it does not 

 interfere in our case, for only the words ' ' on branches ' ' relate to the 

 point in question. A comparison with Chapman's text, as adopted 

 by Gray in his own_ publication, shows that only a part of the 

 diagnosis has been retained by the authors of the New Manual, i. e., 

 that the inflorescence is borne on the branches. The part relating 

 to the radical culms is entirely discarded. 



Consulting leading manuals of another school, we find a* state- 

 ment contrary to the one found in "Gray's New Manual." This, 

 however, is a part of Chapman's diagnosis, the very part which 

 the authors of Gray's New Manual have rejected. The works 

 referred to are, "Britton's Manual of the Flora of the Northern 

 United States and Canada" and Small's "Flora of the South- 

 eastern United States." In Britton's Manual^ the text reads, 

 racemes on short leafless culms ; " in Small' s Flora, s ' ' inflorescence 

 borne on short leafless stems." 



Thus it is obvious that neither in the so called Gray's New 

 Manual nor in the other two works, Britton's Manual and Small's 



' 1. c. p. 98. ^ L c. p. 561. 1882. 



^ 1. C. p. 171. 1908. '• 1. C. p. 158, 1905. 5 I. Q p. 161. 1903, 



