348 Gray's Notice of a New Genus of 
Arrt. XXVL —NOTICE OF A NEW GENUS OF PLANTS OF THE 
ORDER SANTALACEJE. By Asa Gray. Read before the Boston Society 
of Natural History, March 18, 1846. 
Tue incomplete characters of the plant which is the subject 
of the present communication are now published mainly in the 
hope, that by directing the attention of local botanists towards 
it, the information which is still needed may be the sooner 
obtained. 
My earliest knowledge of the plant in question was derived 
from some specimens in the herbarium of the late Zaccheus 
Collins, Esq., now belonging to that zealous botanist, Mr. Elias 
Durand. The specimens were ticketed ** Milledgeville, Geor- 
gia; from Dr. Boykin.” If they were communicated to Mr. 
Collins himself, as appears to have been the case, Dr. Boykin 
was, so far as I can learn, the discoverer of the plant; though, 
perhaps, not aware of its interest ; since it has not again 0c 
curred in the collections of the plants 6f Georgia, which he has 
so liberally distributed among northern botanists. It was m 
the spring of the year 1842 that these specimens fell under my 
observation, through the favor of Mr. Durand, who obliging 
furnished me with a portion of them. They are leafy branches 
of a shrub, with staminate flowers only. 
My next information was received from my friend and cor- 
respondent, the Rev. M. A. Curtis, of North Carolina, who, m 
the summer of 1839, near Lincolnton in that State, noticed a 
shrub quite new to him, but destitute of any vestiges either of 
flowers or fruit. Having seen a leafy specimen, I have no 
doubt of its identity with the plant above mentioned. Mr. 
Curtis revisited the locality last summer, for the special purpose 
of ascertaining what this unknown shrub could be. He was 
disappointed, however, being unable to find a single plant of 
the kind over the whole ground, where it was quite abundant 
six years ago. : 
It was with great pleasure that I met with a specimen of this 
plant, for the third time, in February last, in a small but in- 
