356 Miscellanies. 



with pleasure to pause a moment and view these curious and interest- 

 ing changes. The siliceous carhonate of lime, from which hydraulic 

 cement is extensively manufactured in this village, is found in the cal- 

 ciferous slate, and a quarry is wrought one mile west, on the turnpike 

 leading to Manlius square. On the same hill, and near the quarry, 

 the indurated marl is found in considerable quantity ; specimens of 

 the hme rock from which the cement is manufactured can usually 

 be obtained at the mill of the cement company in this village. 



Chiteningo, N. Y. April 9, 1830. 



MISCELLANIES. 



(domestic and foreign.) 



1. JSI'ote on Cardamine rotuncUfolia, by Wm. Darlington, M. D. 



West-Chester, Penn. May 29, 1830. 



In looking over Prof. Hooker's new and magnificent work, enti- 

 tled " Flora Boreali- Americana, or the Botany of the Northern parts 

 of British America," part 1, page 44, my attention was arrested by 

 the following remark. — " My valued friend Dr. Boot has ascertain- 

 ed that the Arabis rhomboidea of Persoon is the same as the Carda- 

 mine rotundifolia of MichauxJ^ 



I was the more impressed by the observation, coming, at this time 

 of day, from such high authority as Professor Hooker, inasmuch as 

 I thought /had '' ascertained,''^ several years ago, that the said plants 

 were decidedly and undoubtedly distinct. The Arabis rhomboidea, 

 of Persoon, (which Professor De Candolle has very properly, I think, 

 transferred to the genus Cardamine,) is quite a common plant, in 

 this vicinity. I have been well acquainted with it for twenty five 

 years. Until 1819, I was induced, by the doubts of Muhlenberg, 

 Nuttall, and others, to suppose that it might be the Cardamine rotun- 

 difolia, of Michaux : But in that year, I detected, near the Brandy- 

 wine, a few specimens of a plant so different, in habit, from the Ara- 

 bis, and agreeing so exactly with Michaux's Cardamine rotundifolia, 

 that I no longer hesitated in believing them to be distinct species. 

 I submitted the evidences of my belief to an experienced botanical 

 friend, who acknowledged the probable correctness of my conclu- 

 sion 5 but who, nevertheless, ex abundanti cauteld, as the lawyers 

 say, declined giving a decided opinion. 



