34 Botanical Excursion to the Mountains of North Carolina. 



Mr. Nuttall could not have met with this exckisively mountain 

 plant near Wilmington ; and also, that the C. Lyoni of Parsh 

 and the C. latifolia of Muhlenberg and Elliott, are doubtless 

 founded upon one and the same species. Both, indeed, are said 

 to have been collected by Lyon, and the leaves vary from ovate- 

 lanceolate or oval with an acute base, to ovate with a rounded, 

 but scarcely cordate base. Pursh's character is drawn from a 

 cultivated specimen. Here we again met with the Aconitum 

 previously observed in similar situations on the Negro Moun- 

 tain, and which, being then only in bud, we took for the A. 

 U7icinatum, a species collected in this region by Michaux, and 

 recently by Mr. Curtis and other botanists. We were greatly 

 surprised, therefore, to find that our plant, here just coming into 

 blossom, had cream-colored flowers, very different from those of 

 A. iincinatum, and more nearly resembling those of A. Lycocto- 

 num* On our return to Jefferson, we obtained good specimens 

 at our original locality, where it is very abundant. The weak 

 stems, at first ascending, become prostrate when the plant is in 

 flower, and frequently attain the length of seven or eight feet. 

 As the stem does not climb, and its flowers are so different from 

 those of A. uncinatum, it can hardly be the plant mentioned by 

 Pursh under that species, which he saw at the foot of the Peaks 

 of Otter, and about the Sweet Springs, in Virginia. It may be 

 remarked, that the ovaries of A. uncinatum are often nearly 

 glabrous, and the claws of the petals entirely so : the seeds are 

 strongly plicate-rugose, with a wing-like margin on one side. 



* Aconitum reclinatum {spec. nov. § Lycoctonum) : caule elongalo decum- 

 bente foliisque palmatifidis glabris, lobis divaricatis cuneatis apicem versus incisis, 

 racemis paniculisve divergentibus laxifloris (floribus albidis), bracteolis minimis, 

 galea horizontali conico-cylindracea ore obliquo, labio cucullorum obcordato ab 

 un"ue distante, calcaie adunco, filamentis edentulis, caipellis glabris 2-4-sper- 

 mis, seminibus (immaturis) squamoso-rugosis. 



Hab. in opacissimis sylvis ad niontes Negro Mountain et Grandfather dictos, 

 alt. 4000 — 5000 pedes. Julio-Augusto floret— Caulis flaccidus, adscendens vol 

 declinatus, denique procumbens, 3-8-pedalis, ramis gracilibus, seu pauiculis laxi- 

 floris, divaricatis. Folia flaccida ; inferiora longe petiolata, (circumscripiione sub- 

 orbiculari,) profunde 5-7-fida ; segmentis interdum 2-3-lobatis, apice inciso- 

 dentalis, dentibus mucronatis ; summa subsessilia, 3-5-panita; venis et pagina 

 quandoque superiori tenuissime pubescentibus. Pcdicelli sparsi (pedunculique 

 puberuli,) flore longiores, bracteolis 2-3 minimis stipati. Flores minores quam 

 in A. Lycoclono, albi vix flavidis tincti (in siccis leviler purpurascentes) ; sepalis 

 intus pilis aureis barbalis. Galea primuni adscendens, mox horizontaiis, rostello 

 brevi rectiusciilo. Unguis petalorum medium cuculli adfixus : saccus angustus, 

 ore valde obliquo in labium obcordatum expanse. Ovaria tria, 4-6-ovulata. 



