CHARLES WILKINS SHORT 1 33 



of Nuttall, found in Missouri; Aster Shortii, so 

 named by Boott, growing in Ohio, Wisconsin 

 and other regions; Solidago Shortii, of Torrey 

 and Gray, a goldenrod discovered at the Falls of 

 the Ohio ; Carex Shortiana, of Dewey, extending 

 from southern Pennsylvania beyond Illinois."' 



The story of Shortia, which was lost for nearly 

 fifty years, is full of interest. 



"When Dr. Gray was in Paris, in 1839, he 

 observed in the herbarium of the elder Michaux 

 an unnamed specimen of a plant. It consisted 

 merely of the leaves and single fruit, and its label 

 stated that it had been collected in les hautes mon- 

 tagnes de Caroline. On his return to America, 

 Dr. Gray hunted assiduously for the plant in the 

 mountains of North Carolina, but wholly with- 

 out success. Two years later, however, Dr. Gray 

 ventured to describe the plant, which had, he 

 said, the habit of pyrola and the foliage of galax, 

 and dedicated it to Dr. C. W. Short, the eminent 

 botanist of Kentucky. Henceforth no botanist 

 ever visited the region in North Carolina with- 

 out searching for Shortia as if for the philoso- 

 pher's stone. In the meantime, Dr. Gray found 

 among a collection of Japanese plants a specimen 

 almost identical with that of Michaux, a coinci- 

 dence which strengthened his faith in the exist- 

 ence of the American species. It was not until 



^Biographical Sketch. S. D. Gross. 1865. 



