THE  AMEEIOAN 
JO 
Rrog^NUS  p^j%hiAna:  its  history,  growth, 
METj$$$JS  OF  CpLI/ECTION  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
AL  OF  PHARMACY 
^QfiPTEMBER,  1 91 4 
Johnson  and  Edith  Hindman. 
Rhamnus  Purshiana  was  discovered  in  Montana,  on  the  banks 
of  a  tributary  of  the  Columbia  River,  in  1805  or  1806,  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  first  North  American  transcontinental  exploring  expe- 
dition under  the  command  of  Lewis  and  Clark  ("  Silva  of  North 
America,"  by  Sargent,  vol.  2,  1895,  pp.  37-40).  It  was  also  found 
by  Lewis  and  Clark  in  what  is  now  known  as  Oregon  and  Washington. 
On  their  return  journey  they  took  with  them  a  specimen  of  the 
shrub  for  identification.  The  exact  place  where  Lewis  and  Clark 
collected  the  type,  later  examined  by  Pursh,  was  Camp  Chopunish, 
situated  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Kooskooskee  (Clearwater)  River, 
about  two  miles  below  what  is  now  known  as  Kamiah,  Idaho  (Con- 
tributions from  the  National  Herbarium,  vol.  11,  "Flora  of  Wash- 
ington," by  Piper). 
This  plant,  along  with  a  number  of  other  unknown  botanical 
specimens  collected  on  the  journey,  was  given  to  Frederick  Pursh, 
a  German  botanist,  of  Philadelphia,  for  botanical  study.  Frederick 
Pursh  lived  in  America  between  the  years  1799  and  1812.  In  1812 
he  went  to  London,  where,  in  1814,  he  published  a  description  of 
the  plant,  giving  it  the  name  of  Rhamnus  alnifolia  ("  Flora  America? 
Septentrionalis,"  vol.  1,  1814,  p.  166). 
Augustin  Pyramus  de  Candolle  (1 778-1841)  found  that  another 
plant  had  been  named  Rhamnus  alnifolia  by  C.  L.  de  Brutelle 
L'Heritier  in  1775.  In  1825  he  changed  the  name  of  the  plant  de- 
scribed and  named  by  Pursh  as  Rhamnus  alnifolia*  to  Rhamnus 
Purshiana,  in  honor  of  Pursh  (de  Candolle,  "Prodromus  Systematis 
Naturalis,"  vol.  2,  1825,  p.  25). 
The  following  is  a  translation  of  the  Latin  description  of  Rhamnus 
(387) 
