A ee ee 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vol. VI.—JULY, 1872.—No. 7. 
~C-SROEDOD 3 
THE FEDIAS OF THE NORTHERN UNITED STATES. 
BY PROF. THOS. C. PORTER. 
Agout thirty years ago, two Fedias with fruits of singular shape 
were discovered by Mr. Sullivant, near Columbus, Ohio, and pub- 
ished by him as new species under the names of F. umbilicata and 
F. patellaria. They soon disappeared from their original station, 
and no botanist seems to have met with either of them again 
‘Until the Rey. S. W, Knipe of the Delaware Water Gap collected, 
4 in the spring of 1870, a few specimens of F. patellaria, in West- 
‘Moreland County, Pa., and early in June, 1871, a large supply in 
the neighborhood of Columbia on the Susquehanna River, where 
_ © grew in great profusion along with the F. radiata of Michaux. 
i Specimens of this plant, placed in my hands by the collector, 
= CxXhibited such diversities in the fruit as to suggest the idea that 
both it ana F. umbilicata might in the end prove to be forms of 
F. radiata, Dr, Gray, to whom the conjecture was communicated, 
kindly furnished fruits from Mr. Sullivant’s plants, to complete 
; i n of evidence, and the information that F. umbilicata had 
“50 been rediscovered, last summer, on the Hudson River. 
a The Manual of Dr. Gray contains five species of Fedia ; one an 
oo from Europe (F. olitoria Vahl.), and four indigenous. 
u of the 
- gEntereg ; 
5 SereNce, ne ang to the Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
fice of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 5 
ER. NATURALIST, VOL. VI. 25 (380) 
