STUDIES OF THAWCTRACBAB — I. 53 



identical with that (see Wats. Index, 26). It is to be noted that 

 De Candolle (Syst. I, 173) had without doubt or hesitancy so 

 referred it, save as having distinguished between T. purpuras- 

 ceus, I,inn., and his own T. revoluium, under which latter he 

 writes T. polygamum as a synonym. But this name, having been 

 printed without diagnosis, and therefore without title to the rank 

 of a plant name at all, ought to be excluded even from synonomy, 

 because it can not be connected with any species whatsoever 

 except by guess. This however is not quite so nearly true of 

 T. Cornuti ; for in the publication of this name an earlier 

 name was cited, and this earlier one was accompanied by a 

 description so full and clear as to leave no doubt that such 

 description was drawn up from a specimen of T. aquilegifolium . 

 But, to write down T. Cornuti as a mere synonym of this Old 

 World plant and leave the matter so, is to falsify the situation 

 by leaving untold one significant item of scientific truth which 

 stands in this connection. It is quite certain that Cornutus 

 had in his garden at the time a Thalidrum from Canada, almost 

 as certainly a white-flowered one, therefore one which might 

 by any piece of oversight or carelessness become confused with 

 the white-flowered variety of T. aquilegifolium. It is not im- 

 portant that it should be shown how, or by whose mistake, the 

 fruits of T. aquilegifolium came to be described by Cornutus 

 for those of his T. Canadense ; but the plant from Canada — 

 almost certainly sent from Quebec, and by Dr. Sarracenius, 

 the botanical correspondent of Parisian botanists of the time — 

 was not ephemeral in European gardens. It remained there 

 for more than a hundred years, and may still be there. Her- 

 mann in Germany, and Morison and Ray in England, as well 

 as Tournefort and others of the time knew, and distinguished, 

 between T. aquilegifolium. of Europe and T. Canadense of 

 America, all these as subsequent to the time of Cornutus, yet 

 in the same century. Then among contemporaries of I,in- 

 naeus in the century following, they had the plant in Germany 

 and in England still, always distinguishing it from its Euro- 

 pean ally. Philip Miller describes both species, and, sup- 

 pressing I,innaeus' name T. Cornuti, restores to the species 



