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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLV 



words should be quoted here. As far as I am aware, 

 there exists but one account of any length of Marchant's 

 discovery, that of Korschinsky. ls Godron refers to 

 him 19 as does de Vries. 20 



Since the original papers are rather inaccessible to the 

 majority, it was deemed of interest to give here a trans- 

 lation of Marchant's two articles dealing with his dis- 

 covery. The translation of course has been made as 

 literal as possible. The first paper is merely a resume 

 of an address made before the academy by Ma reliant, 

 The second gives a detailed account as published in the 

 Memoirs. 



On the Production of New Species of Plants 21 

 In the month of July, 1715, Mons. Marchant noted 

 in his garden a plant which he did not know, and which 

 attained a height of from five to six inches. 22 It per- 

 sisted until the end of December, when it dried up and 

 died. He believed to be able to class it only with the 

 genus to which the mercury belonged; and since it 

 was entirely new and thus far had not been described by 

 authors, he called it Mercurialis foliis capillaceis. 



The following year in the month of April, and in the 

 same place where this plant had been, he saw appear six 

 others, of which four were quite similar to the former, 

 and two others sufficiently different to make another 

 species of mercury, which he named Mercurialis foliis 

 in varias £• ina-qunles Jacinias quasi dilaccraiis. It per- 

 sisted until the end of December, in which respect these 

 two species are different from the common mercury, 

 which, though annual like these, does not last as long. 



