388 



CALIFORNIA.— SUPPLEMENT. 



[Santalacece. 



1. G. polygaloides. Hook, et Am. in Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 281. — Chenopodium ? spino- 

 sum. Hook. Flor. Bor. Am. II. p. 127, (mas.); supra p. 384.* 



Hab. Interior of California, Nov. 182(1 ; Mr Douglas. Snake country ; Mr Tolmie. 



Our first knowledge of this very singular and interesting plant, was derived from extremely young and im- 

 perfect specimens collected by Mr Douglas during his first journey in North West America, and noticed in 

 the Flora Boreali- Americana as a doubtful species of Chenopodium. Our specimens with female flowers and 

 fruit, from the Snake country, have an aspect so extremely different from those just alluded to, partly from the 

 more fully developed foliage, and partly from the very different structure of the perianth, that it was not till after 

 a most careful comparison of the two plants, that we could satisfy ourselves of their belonging to one and the 

 same species. The habit and foliage resemble considerably some Cape Polygala, a resemblance still further 

 strengthened by the shape and colour, frequently tinged with red, of the fructiferous perianth. The leaves 

 when young are thick and fleshy, obovato-cuneate, and covered with minute mealy scales as in several species 

 of Atriplex : and it is from this circumstance very probable that the plant grows in salt marshes. When the 

 leaves are older they elongate, and the mealiness disappears. 



We have dedicated this genus to Dr Asa Gray, Professor of Botany in the newly established university 

 of the State of Michigan, U.S., the distinguished author of the revision of North American Rhynchosporece 

 and Mclant/tacea, and coadjutor with Dr Torrey in the Flora of North America. It is true that already two 

 other genera have been named after our excellent friend, the one Grayia of Arnott, in Wight's Catalogue of 

 plants of the Peninsula of India, No. 2033 ; but as Dr Arnott has reason to think that Dr Gray would prefer 

 his name to be connected with the American plant, the Eastern one will be described under another designa- 

 tion ; the other is the Asagraa officinalis of Dr Lindley, in the Bot. Ileg. (1839) t. 33 : but no sooner 

 had Dr Gray seen this figure than he felt almost certain that the plant belonged to his genus Scha:nocaulon, an 

 opinion, he informs us, he has since verified by an examination of Scheide's specimen, the authority for the 

 species. \ 



Ord. LI. SANTALACEiE. Broivn. 



1. Comandra umbellata. Nult. — Hook. Flor. Bor. Am. II. p. 139. 

 Hab. Snake country below the American falls. Mr Tolmie. 



* Inserted there by mistake under Plumbaginece. 



t " Of Sclianocaulon I now know four species. The genus is extremely well marked and distinct, though 

 the character requires some emendation, since it was drawn from a single species, and that without the fruit. 

 There is first the original species, S. gracile : — then this of Lindley — thirdly, a plant in Drummond's Texan 

 collection ; in the herbarium of Vienna I had named this S. aletroides, but as that name is not very appropriate, 

 it may be rather called S. Drummondii : I have not seen the base of the stem, but it probably is bulbous like 

 the others. — The fourth species {S. carici folium) is Veratrum caricifolium Schlecht. in Ind. Sem. Halens. 

 of which he has given me a specimen in fine fruit ; he possesses young plants raised from the seed also : the 

 foliage, &c, is exactly the same as in the original species, but the spike is shorter and thicker." Gray in htt. 



We have received from G. U. Skinner, Esq., of Guatemala specimens precisely according with Scheide 

 and Lindley's plant, from Guatemala, as the Sabadilla of commerce of that country : but this must not be 

 confounded with the Veratrum Sabadilla of Descourtilz Flor. des Antilles, III. t. 195, and of Turpin in the 

 plates to the Diet, des Sc. Nat., which it is to be feared has nothing to do with the true Sabadilla. 



