238 General Notes. [March, 



there we rode on towards the fort, and then returned from the fifth 

 unsuccessful search. 



Whilst in Darien I met Mr.Cowper, a son of Hon. J. Hamilton 

 Cowper, who was well known some forty years ago among scientific 

 men for his culture and refined hospitality, and for the great inter- 

 est he took in the natural sciences. Mr. Cowper informed me 

 that his father had collected in his grounds all the trees and shrubs 

 indigenous to that section of the country, but did not have Gordo- 

 nia pubcscens among them; that he himself had been hunting for 

 it for several years past, having been up frequently to Barrington 

 looking both in the river swamp, on the south side, and in the 

 woods and branches on the north side. I also heard whilst there 

 that a collector of seeds from some Northern house had come on 

 from Florida to hunt for the Gordonia near Barrington, and that 

 he was also unsuccessful. 



What are we to think of all this ? The two Bartrams and Moses 

 Marshall saw it 100 years ago, without any doubt, for the trees 

 growing from the seeds which they distributed give conclusive 

 proof of its existence at that time, and in considerable quantity, 

 in that locality. Since then it has been lost, even to the people 

 of that region, and, as far as I can learn, has never been seen else- 

 where. Was it confined to that single locality, and has it become 

 extinct ? This supposition is scarcely admissible without very 

 strong proof. I confess I am at a loss for any explanation of its 

 disappearance. I have thus given a minute and detailed account 

 of my unsuccessful efforts, in the hope that it may assist any future 

 explorer to solve the mystery o\ iha. — ■//. U r . 



Ravenel, Aiken, S. C, Jan. 6, 1882. 



Diatrype disciforms (HorT) Fr. — It has been noted that 

 the American specimens referred to this species differ somewhat 

 from the common European type, though the difference has not 

 hitherto been considered sufficient to warrant a specific distinction. 

 European specimens from Cooke, Winter, De Thiimen and Plow- 

 right are on beech, but, according to Fries, it occurs also, though 

 more rarely, on oak and birch. American specimens in Rav. 

 Fungi Car. and F. Americani are on Magnolia glauca, on the 

 dead trunks and branches of which it seems to be very common 

 from Southern N. J. to Florida. It is the form on Magnolia of 

 which I wish to speak. In the spring of 1875 I sent specimens of 

 this fungus to Baron de Thiimen, who distributed them in his 

 Mycotheca Universalis (No. 359), and afterwards in the Bull, of 

 the Torr. Bot. Club, Vol. vi, page -95, published it as Diatrype 

 dhciformis Fr. v.ir. tnagnolue Thm., noting that it differed in its 

 smaller disk and indeterminate ostiola from the European form. 

 Some years ago I had noticed that occasionally a magnolia trunk 

 would be found on which the specimens of this fungus all pre- 

 sented a concave disk, depressed even below the general surface 

 of the bark with white, dot-like punctures marking the place of the 



