30 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



(illustrated in the specimen before me), which I submit is much 

 nearer to, ill not the typical wild H. latiflorus. All the forms of 

 H. rigidus, including the variety semi-plenus, have thick coria- 

 ceous shagreen-like leaves, and longish peduncles to the flower- 

 heads, while in H. Icstiflorus, as growing in the Kew collection, 

 Dr. Gray's description of thinner leaves and shorter peduncles 

 fits to a nicety, and he pronounced in my hearing, a few years 

 ago, the opinion "that if any plant in English gardens was 

 H. Icetiflorus that was the plant." The dried specimens at 

 Kew are not very reliable, inasmuch as, with one exception, they 

 are garden specimens ; the only really wild specimen does not 

 show the involucral bracts. 



In the British Museum there is also only one wild specimen 

 (from Ohio), and this agrees in every detail with the Kew plant, 

 which I have no doubt whatever is the true H. IcBtiflorus as 

 denned by Dr. Gray, and that all the other forms will have 

 to be placed under H. rigidus. The characters of the Kew 

 plant, as I said before, agree in every detail with Dr. Gray's 

 description, and may be given briefly as follows : Somewhat 

 taller than tall forms of H. rigidus ; very leafy, even to the top ; 

 the leaves thinner, serrated, and tapering to both ends ; the 

 flowers large, very short peduncled, and the bracts of the in- 

 volucre in about three series — ovate, or narrow lanceolate, and 

 attenuate-acute, ciliate on the margins and occasionally on the 

 back. Indeed, the general appearance of the plant, its lateness in 

 flowering, and general robustness enable us to draw the line 

 with a good deal of certainty at H. rigidus semi-plenus, which I 

 believe to be a garden creation, and the semi-double form of 

 H. rigidus elegans. With regard to H. giganteus — a fine tall 

 showy species, if one selects the best forms — our experience at 

 the British Museum the other day may serve to illustrate the 

 difficulty we have in getting at anything like finality with these 

 variable plants. The Linnaean type in the British Museum, 

 originally collected in Virginia by Gronovius, and published in 

 " Species Plantarum," edition 2, is described as having linear, 

 opposite, and sessile leaves, exactly representing the type speci- 

 men, while in all the other specimens, as well as in the cultivated 

 forms, the upper leaves are distinctly petioled, and always alter- 

 nate, the lower only being opposite. The name giganteus is, 

 however, a good one for the plant, as it is the tallest of the 



