16 



cover part of what is now Helianthus, but it will not do to refer 

 to that genus ever>^thing with squamellae, regardless of other 

 characters. Harpalium Cass., 1818, which includes certain 

 perennials, is older than Viguiera H.B.K., 1820. There are 

 other names which may perhaps be rescued from the synonymy, 

 but even if we grant the necessity' for generic revision, it is as 

 yet too early to say where the lines should be drawn and what 

 names should be used. Mr. S. Alexander's root-characters for 

 the perennials will certainly have to be taken into account. 

 The new system should correspond to the actual relationships of 

 the plants, and in order to establish it properly it will be necessary 

 to consider the phylogeny of the whole group. For this purpose 

 all characters are of interest, and all species, not excluding 

 those of South America. 



THE GALAX ODOR 



By E. F. Andrews 



Only those who are familiar with the Galax aphylla in its 

 native habitat are likely to have had their attention called to 

 the peculiar odor characteristic of this pretty little plant. None 

 of the handbooks with which I am acquainted make any mention 

 of it, and the only allusion to it that I have met with in botanical 

 writings describes it as "a polecat smell"- — which may well 

 suggest a doubt to the minds of the initiated whether the writer 

 himself had ever smelt a polecat. There is nothing sharp or 

 pungent about the galax, like the knock-down odor of the polecat, 

 and the misnomer, "skunk cabbage," sometimes applied to it 

 in the Georgia mountains, was no doubt suggested by the mal- 

 odorous reputation of the true skunk cabbage {Symplocarpus 

 foetidus) and intended to emphasize the abominableness of the 

 smell rather than to describe its quality. In the galax, it is a 

 faint, sickly carrion scent, too vague and elusive to attract 

 attention except where the plant occurs in large masses, as it 

 always does in its favorite home on the shad}' slopes of the 

 Southern Appalachians. On Lavender Mountain, in Floj-d 

 Count}', Georgia, where these observations were made, the 



