IIl4 BOTANICAL GAZETTE | FEBRUARY 
in the second edition of the same work, and simply used asa 
quotation for what he had thought to be a well distinguished 
species of Ornithogalum, instead of being a combination of two 
different genera. It is beyond any doubt, therefore, that Lin- 
nzus really once intended the name Ornithogalum hirsutum for 
our Hypoxis erecta, but his knowledge of this plant was largely, 
if not exclusively, based upon defective descriptions and illustra- 
tions given by earlier authors. 
In order to present the Linnean quotations as complete as 
possible, I have thought it best to reprint here the diagnoses of 
the first three species of Ornithogalum, especially as the first 
edition of Species plantarum has become a very rare book. The 
Linnean diagnoses read as follows: 
Ornithogalum. 
luteum 1. Ornithogalum scapo anguloso diphyllo, pedunculis umbellatis 
simplicibus. Fl]. suec. 270. 
Ornithogalum scapo diphyllo, pedunculis simplicibus terminalibus, fila- 
mentis omnibus subulatis. Hort. Cliff. 124. Roy. lugdb. 31. 
Ornithogalum luteum. Bauh. pin. 71. 
Pyrrhochiton, Reneal. spec. g1. t. go. 
Habitat in Europe cultis macellis. 
minimum 2. Ornithogalum scapo angulato diphyllo, pedunculis umbellatis 
ramosis. Fl. suec. 271. 
‘Domithanimoe luteum minus. Bauh. pin. 71. 
Hypoxis Reneal. spec. 92. 
Habitat in Europe cultis oleraceis. 
hirsutum 3. Ovrnithoga/um scapo angulato, pedunculis umbellatis villosis. 
Ornithogalum scapo bifloro. Roy. lugdb. 31. 
Ornithogalum virginianum luteum. Pet. gaz. I. t. I. f. 3. 
Ornithogalum \uteum parvum virginianum, foliis gramineis hirsutis. 
Pluk. alm. 272. t. 350. £. 12. 
Ornithogalum vernum luteum, foliis angustis hirsutis. Gron. Virg. 37, 
Habitat in Virginia, Canada. 
Spec. I. 2. 3. maxime affines sunt. 
This last remark certainly indicates that Linnzus did not 
suspect Orntthogalum hirsutum to be generically distinct from the 
two other plants. His knowledge of the American plant must 
have been very imperfect at that time, and the descriptions given — 
