350 Gray's Notice of a New Genus of 
The pistillate flowers appear to be very scarce. In August, 
1841, however, Mr. Darby obtained the unripe fruit, which, 
he remarks, is * baccate, one-celled, one-seeded, apparently 
inferior, but there is no cohesion of the ovary with the calyx ; 
style one.” Mr. Darby had regarded the plant as probably a 
new genus, but, on account of its free calyx (and having also 
apparently overlooked the tuft of hairs, &c. in the staminate 
flowers, which indicate its close relationship to Comandra) he 
had referred it to the wrong natural order. Indeed, if the 
calyx-tube does not cohere with the ovary, an unexpected 
anomaly in the character of the order Santalaces is here pre- 
sented. We are at present unable to verify this point; Mr. 
Darby's fruiting specimens having recently been lost by ship- 
wreck, along with many other invaluable specimens and notes, 
on their way from Georgia.' 
In directing the attention of the botanists of Upper Carolina 
and Georgia to this interesting shrub, I would specially request 
that the pistillate flowers and young fruits may be preserved 
in spirits, in order not only that the peculiarity already alluded 
to may be satisfactorily determined ; but more particularly, that 
the structure of the ovula and the fecundation, so peculiar in 
this natural family, may be duly studied. For the same reason; 
specimens of the pistillate flowers of Pyrularia, Michx. (the 
Hamiltonia of Muhlenberg,) and also of Buckleya of Torrey; 
preserved in spirits, are especially desired by the writer. 
As I have no doubt that this shrub adds another to our few 
genera of this interesting order, I am desirous that it should 
bear the name, and commemorate the botanical services and 
zeal, of Professor Darby, one of its discoverers, to whom a large 
part of our still incomplete knowledge of the plant is mainly 
1 In answer to a particular inquiry, Mr. Darby informs me, by letter, that his 
memory is not positive as to the want of cohesion between the calyx and the dd 
that some notes, made with the plant before him, were unfortunately lost w! 
the specimens. He remarks, also, that the mature fruit was not soft and pulpy: 
he supposed from the earlier stage that it would prove to be. It is, therefore, ri 
bably similar in texture to that of Pyrularia or Buckleya, or perhaps even dry, 
