March 18, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



123 



ingenious investigator Chamisso." Indeed, one who follows 

 Chamisso through all the fields of science in which he labored 

 will often find him advancing ideas which later writers have 

 either wholly or partially incorporated into theories that now 

 command general acceptance, while the name of their first 

 founder is forgotten by all except a few specialists. But my 

 object has only been to show that the poet whom the world 

 knows so well was "lined," as the French say, by a scientific 

 man of much distinction ; and perhaps those who think that 

 an interesting association adds to the charm of even Nature's 

 loveliest products will be glad to remember, whenever they 

 look at the California Poppy, that it was discovered and named 

 by the author of " Peter Schlemihl," and of the many charm- 

 ing ballads which mitigated the drought and dustiness of their 

 first steps in the study of the German language.* 

 New York. M. G. Van Rensselaer. 



Recent Botanical Discoveries in China and 

 Eastern Burma. — IV. 



Pedicularis. — Despite the wonderful variety displayed by 

 this genus of plants, it has never yet received much attention 

 from gardeners. The species may be difficult to cultivate, as 

 they almost all grow in pastures in thick turf, and are, perhaps, 

 in an early stage of development at least, root-parasites, like 

 many of the allied genera. Looking through some of the 

 illustrated periodicals, such as the Botanical Magazine, which 

 has now appeared uninterruptedly for 113 years, we find that 

 only three species have been figured, namely, Pedicularis 

 Canadensis (t. 2506) ; P. mollis (t. 4599), an Indian species, and 

 P. megalantha (t. 7132) ; also an Indian species, figured in the 

 last completed volume. The last is really an ornamental 

 plant, of which there are many in the genus, especially among 

 the numerous Indian and Chinese species. 



If gardeners have neglected this genus of herbaceous plants, 

 botanists have not, as it has been monographed over and over 

 again. The species are spread all around the rforthern hemi- 

 sphere, from the arctic regions southward, in America, to the 

 Andes, but not south of the equator. One of the species 

 mentioned above, P. Canadensis, ranges from Canada to 

 Florida and the mountains of central Mexico. In Europe the 

 species are less numerous than in America, only two being 

 found in Britain, and hitherto, I believe, no species has been 

 found in Africa. In Asia they abound from the arctic regions 

 southward to Ceylon and Burma ; and they are especially 

 numerous and ornamental in the mountains of India and 

 China. So recently as 1888 Mr. C. J. Maximowiczf has mono- 

 graphed the Avhole genus, and since then Dr. D. Prain, 

 Curator of the Calcutta Herbarium, has been engaged on a 

 fully illustrated monograph of all the Indian species, only the 

 letterpress of which has reached England at the time of writing 

 this* Maximowicz enumerates 250 species, including a few 

 imperfectly known ones ; and Prain seventy Indian species, 

 being nearly double the number described in Hooker's "Flora 

 of British India " no longer ago than 1884. Finally, I have 

 between ninety and a hundred in the " Index Florae Sinensis," 

 including several remarkable species previously undescribed. 

 Mr. Maximowicz, in the monograph referred to above, gives 

 a brief history of the literature of the genus, from which we 

 learn how greatly the number of species has been augmented 

 by comparatively or quite recent explorations. The Russian 

 botanist, Steven, compiled the first monograph of the genus, 

 which appeared in 1822, and contains descriptions of forty- 

 nine species. Bunge followed in 1843 and 1846 with ninety- 

 nine species, and Bentham in 1835 an< J ^46 with 109 species. 

 The Russian explorers of central Asia and north-western 

 China added a great many new species, bringing the total up to 

 rather more than 150 in a synopsis by Maximowicz in 1877, 

 with additions in 1881. 



In 1886 the late Dr. Asa Gray described twenty-eight species 

 in his "Synoptical Flora of North America." As already 

 stated, Maximowicz's monograph raised the number to 250 

 species in 1888, and the great accession to the previously 

 known species in this monograph was mainly due to the exer- 

 tions of two French missionaries, Delavay and David, in west- 



* Most of the facts in this article have been drawn from an address delivered in 

 1888 at Berlin by Professor Dubois-Reymond, printed in the Deutsche Rundschau, 

 and translated in the Popular Science Monthly for December, 1890. The portrait 

 which accompanied the translation showed the youthful Chamisso — Chamisso the 

 poet — with strong features, somewhat like those of Schiller, although less pro- 

 nounced, a smoothly shaven face and long, thick, light hair falling in curls on the 

 shoulders. 



t While writing this I have received the news of the unexpected death of this 

 distinguished botanist. It was known to us that he was in bad health, but we were 

 quite unprepared for the sudden event, which has deprived Russia of her foremost 

 botanist, and the botanical world of the highest authority on the flora of central and 

 eastern Asia. 



ern China. No fewer than forty-eight Chinese species were 

 described for the first time; and the "Index Floras Sinensis " 

 adds descriptions of ten more. 



All the species of Pedicularis are herbaceous plants, and ap- 

 parently mostly perennials, though it is probable that some of 

 them, perhaps a considerable number, flower only once. They 

 vary in stature from two or three inches to four or five feet, 

 and the leaves are alternate, opposite or verticillate, and pre- 

 sent infinite variety in form and cutting, many of them being 

 exceedingly elegant. The flowers, too, which are produced in 

 clusters or spikes, or singly, are equally variable in size and 

 color, and are very curiously formed, the tubular portion of 

 the corolla being often very narrow and very long, and the 

 upper lip often assuming the shape of a beak or proboscis, 

 which is sometimes curved upward, sometimes downward, 

 sometimes twisted, and sometimes very much elongated. In 

 other species the upper lip is merely hood-shaped, or consist- 

 ing of two lobes similar in size and shape to those of the lower 

 lip, or in a few instances it is even shorter than the lower lip, 

 or almost obsolete. The prevailing colors are shades of red 

 and purple, but there are pure yellows and white, and com- 

 monly the Mowers are spotted with another color. 



Before passing to the Chinese species a few words respect- 

 ing some of the more remarkable Indian species may not be 

 out of place. Foremost comes P. megalantha {Botanical Maga- 

 zine, t. 7132), because it is already in cultivation. It has 

 rosy purple flowers two inches and a half long, with a very 

 narrow tube, and a broadly lobed lower lip enclosing the in- 

 curved, beak-like upper lip. This has been successfully culti- 

 vated by Mr. George Wilson, the well-known English amateur 

 horticulturist of Weybridge. I may mention that the plant 

 figured in Regel's Garlenflora (1878, p. 195, t. 943) under the 

 same name is apparently a different species, though closely 

 allied, having clear yellow flowers, with a comparatively short 

 tube. Noteworthy among other species of this section, which 

 on the whole is the most ornamental section of the genus, are 

 P. bella, P. labellata, P. siphonantha, P. Perrottetii and P. bicor- 

 nnta. These must all be very beautiful plants. P. bella is a 

 dwarf plant, from one and a half to three inches high, the large 

 flowers springing from a tuft of leaves close to the ground, 

 and constituting about two-thirds of the whole height. This 

 little gem grows gregariously in Sikkim at altitudes of 15,000 

 to 16,000 feet, and although the color of the flowers is not 

 given in the descriptions it is evidently a very ornamental spe- 

 cies. Judging from dried specimens, it is an annual. P. Per- 

 rottetii is a native of the Nilgherry mountains, in southern 

 India, and has the longest flowers of any known species ; in 

 fact, considerably longer than those of any other species. The 

 whole plant is usually less than a foot high, and often not more 

 than six inches, and in the finest specimens I have seen the 

 white flowers are fully five inches long. P. bicomuta is an ex- 

 ceedingly handsome yellow-flowered species, a native of 

 north-west India and Afghanistan, ascending to altitudes of 

 9,000 to 13,000 feet. The flowers have a comparatively short 

 tube, but they are broad and showy ; and the stems of this 

 species are often a foot high, and studded with fully expanded 

 flowers throughout their length. In this species the upper lip 

 has the curious beak-like form inflexed, and twisted and bipid 

 at the tip ; hence the specific name. The Indian P. tenuiroslris 

 is also remarkable for the long proboscis-like upper lip. 



Coming to the Chinese species, we find equal variety, though 

 none perhaps with flowers quite so long as those of P. Perrot- 

 tetii. On the other hand, there are some quite peculiar Chi- 

 nese types. Especially remarkable among these is one to 

 which I have given the name of Pedicularis vagans. It is a 

 native of Mount Omei, in the province of Szechuen, at an alti- 

 tude of 4,000 to 5, 000 feet, and has long-stalked, radical leaves, 

 about a foot long, and so like the fronds of a small Lastrea or 

 Aspidium as to be easily mistaken for a fern, especially before 

 the development of the flower-stems. The latter are long, 

 slender and weak, and evidently clamber over other plants. 

 In shape and cutting the leaves borne on the flower-stems are 

 very similar to those of the white thorn, Cratcegus Oxyacan- 

 tha. The flowers are not large, and apparently inconspicuous, 

 though their color is unknown. As an ornamental plant, how- 

 ever, P. vagans is far surpassed by many of the new Chinese 

 species. Among them P. superba and P. Rex ; the latter, hav- 

 ing a large, hood-shaped upper lip, is also found in eastern 

 India. Two other fine Indian species also occur in western 

 China, named P. labellata and P. Elwesii ; both dwarf plants 

 with numerous stems, the latter having very large, dark purple 

 flowers. 



P. Prze%valskii, in stature and size of flowers, resembles the 

 Indian P. bella, described above ; but the singularly beaked 

 upper lip and broadly lobed lower lip of the corolla give the 



