301 
In the first edition of Linnaeus’ Species Plantarum, there are 
nine species of Physalis described, of which six are accredited to 
America. Of these six two are frutescent and are now referred 
to the genus Withania. Hence there remain only. four American 
species which were known to Linnaeus in 1753, viz: P. viscosa, 
P. angulata, P. pubescens and P. pruinosa. Besides these, P. Alke- 
kengi has escaped from cultivation in a few places. 
Physalis Alkekengi* has been well understood from its first pub- 
lication, and can scarc ly be confounded with any of our native spe- 
cies. The whitish, more plainly 5-lobed corolla distinguishes it 
from all of them. 
` Physalis viscosa L.t is without any doubt the plant that now 
appears under that name in our manuals. The name viscosa re- 
fers to the viscid berry. Unfortunately there are several other 
Species that have viscid fruit and the choice of name did not hap- 
pen to be a good one. Thinking the name referred to the viscid 
pubescence, most of the earlier American authors, as Pursh, 
Eaton, Darlington, Beck, Torrey and at first also Gray, applied it 
to another perennial species, Physalis heterophylla Nees,{ P 
Virginiana Gray $ not Mill| Roth applied it to ?. Pew was 
and P. viscosa Jacq. is either P. Virginiana Mill. or P. heterophylla 
Nees. This may partly account for the many synonyms under P. 
viscosa L. Gmelin called it P. nutans and Walter P. tomentosa,§, 
which was changed to P. Walteri by Nuttall,** as there were al- 
ready two species which had been described under this name, viz: 
P. tomentosa Medicustt and P. tomentosa Thunberg.it 
The remaining Linnaean species of 1753 are not as well under- 
Stood. The diagnosis in each case is very vague and incomplete, 
and agrees as well or as badly with any of our annual species, and 
diei) can be sure that the name — to the Kae to which 
*L. Sp. P Pl. Lise à 1763. 
+ L. Sp. PL 183. 1753. 
1 Linnaea, 6: 4635. 1831. 
$ Gray, Syn. Fl. 2: pt. 1, 235. 1878. 
| Mill. Gard. Dict. Ed. E no, 4. 1768. 
*| Walt, Fl. Car. 99. 
** Journ. Acad. Mi 7: 112. 1834. 
H Act. Acad, Theod, Palat, 4: 184. 1780. 
+4 Thunb. Prod. Pl. Cap. 37. 1794. 
