178 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. (1839, 
morning, at Richard’s, the examination of those species 
upon which Michaux’s herbarium is not satisfactory. 
Richard boasts of his set as the authentic one (which 
is true), but it is not as complete nor as good as the 
other, which is partly owing to Richard having di- 
vided with Kunth when he could. Michaux must have 
made a capital collection, since it has moreover sup- 
plied the general herbarium with a pretty extensive 
set, and Desfontaines and Jussieu with many; others I 
meet in the Ventenat herbarium (Delessert). The 
say De Candolle has some of Michaux’s plants, and 
who besides I know not. 
But I have something fans than all this to tell 
ou. I have discovered a new genus in Michaux’s 
herbarium — at the end, among plaaitie ignote. It is 
from that great unknown region, the high mountains 
of North Carolina. We have the fruit, with the per- 
sistent calyx and style, but no flowers, and a guess 
that I made about its affinities has been amply borne 
out on examination by Decaisne and myself. It is 
allied to Galax, but “ un tres-distinct genus,” having 
axillary one-flowered scapes (the flower large) and a 
style like that of a Pyrola, long and declined. Indeed 
I hope it will settle the riddle about the family of 
Galax, and prove Richard to be right when he says 
Ordo Ericareum. I claim the right of a discoverer to 
affix the name. So I say, as this is a good North 
American genus and comes from near Kentucky, it 
shall be christened Shortia, to which we will stand as 
godfathers. So Shortia galacifolia, Torr. and Gr., it 
shall be. I beg you to inform Dr. Short, and to say 
that we will lay upon him no greater penalty than this 
necessary thing, — that he make a pilgrimage to the 
mountains of Carolina this coming summer and pro- 
