in 
p io apd OF THE GERARDIEJE, 
A OF SCROPHULARI- 
By George Bentham, Esq., F.L.S. 
THE name of Gerardia was originally 
given by Plumier to a West Indian plant, 
apparently acanthaceous, which has been 
referred to Ruellia rupestris, Swartz, but 
Linneus, in taking up the name, applied it 
more particularly to three North American 
plants G. purpurea, flava, and pedicularia, 
and one East Indian one G. delphinifolia, 
which have ever since been especially con- 
prevailed relating to the character and ex- 
tent which should be given to it. Indeed 
. Linneus himself, by combining with these 
four species Plumier’s above-mentioned 
plant under the name of G. tuberosa, the 
Chinese G. glutinosa (which is Pterostig- 
ma grandiflorum, Benth. Scroph. Ind. p. 
21,) and three Cape species, to which I 
. Shall presently revert, had not succeeded 
in establishing a very well defined genus, 
: nor yet a natural one, notwithstanding La- 
 marck's observation, that it forms **un de 
ces genres peu saillans par leurs caractéres 
et qui ne sont composés le plus souvent que 
de l'assemblage d'espéces qu'on aurait pu 
rapporter à d'autres genres déjà connus, 
mais qu'on a rapprochées d'aprés un aspect 
particulier.” The Linnean character co- 
pied by one author after another, as late 
even as Pursh, is not applicable to any of 
the above species, except, perhaps, to Plu- 
mier’s, which nobody has examined since 
that Botanist, and is as yet a doubtful 
plant. 
_ The three American species had been 
ora Boreali-Americana, in which to 
e four he added a new one, G. auricu- 
and associated with them under the 
of G. Afzelia, the Afzelia cassioides 
of Gmelin. 
- Pursh, in his Flora Americe Septentri- 
onalis, follows. Michaux thus far, changing 
SYNOPSIS OF THE GERARDIE.E, 
ter's G. setacea, and describes three new 
species, G. quercifolia, cuneifolia, and 
ruticosa. To the first, which is allied to, 
but distinct from, that which he and all 
subsequent writers consider to be G. flava, — 
he adduced as a synonym the Rhinanthus | 
virginicus of Gronovius and Linneus, 
Upon inspection of the Linnean Herbari- 
um, it turns out that the G. quercifolia is 
Linneus’s G. flava, and it seems probable 
that the Rhinanthus virginicus belongs 
rather to the G. flava of Pursh and modern 
writers ; yet it is perhaps now better, in or- 
der to avoid confusion, to apply the names 
of G. flava and quercifolia, as they have. 
been done by Pursh, Nuttall, and others, - 
and give Linneus’s G, flava as a synonym - 
to G. quercifolia, 
Of the two other species of Pursh, the - 
one, G. fruticosa, is a Pentstemon, the 
other, G. cuneifolia, is the Gratiola acu- - 
minata, Ell. (not of Pursh), or my Matou- 
rea nigrescens. 
In his supplement, Pursh restores Gme- 
lin’s genus, under the name of Seymeria — 
(Afzelia having been previously applied to 
a Leguminous genus), and adds to the 
cassioides, of which he changes again the 
specific name for that of tenuifolia, ano- 
ther, under the name of S. pectinata. The — 
former certainly differs from Gerardia in 
habit, in the form of the calyx and corolla, 
and in the long beak of the capsule, the 
second species has an obtuse capsule, but 
the calyx is the same, and the corolla is: 
also said to be so, and relying on these two 
characters I should propose adopting the 
genus as very nearly allied to, but distinct 
from, Gerardia. 
Nuttall in his Genera of North American 
plants, divides the true Gerardie of that 
country into two natural groups, the yellow 
flowered with large cut leaves being my 
section Pedicularoides, and containing the 
G. flava, quercifolia, and pedicularia, 
the purple-flowered with entire 
„leaves (my Eugerardia) comprising the 
G. purpurea, tenuifolia and setacea, toge- 
ther with the G. maritima, already distin 
guished from G. purpurea by Rafinesqt 
and three new ones, G. linifolia, aph 
HER 
