Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London - University Library

52 PEOCEEDI]S"GS OF THE
ABSTEACTS.
I.
Note on the Distribution of the Genus Shortia, Torr. & Gray.
By B. Datdon Jackson, Gen. Sec. L.S.
[Eead loth February, 1906.]
At the General Meeting held on the 7th December, 1905,
Mr. W. T. Hindmarsh, F.L.S., sent photographs of a plant of
Shortia unijiora in cultivation in his garden at Alnwick. In the
discussion which followed, enquiry was raised as to the number of
species contained in the genus, and the present short paper is an
attempt to answer the question then put.
The original species, S. galaeifolia, was collected in Carolina by
Michaux, in fruit, and described by Asa Gray from the single
specimen at Paris, in 1839 ; the plant was not again found till
iiearly a century after the first discovery, and then in McDowell
County, in South-west Virginia. The original station has since
been found again by referring to Michaux's manuscript journal, as
recounted in the ' Botanical Magazine,' t. 7082.
The second species, S. unijiora, was at first placed under the
closely allied genus ScMzocodon, it was found in the province of
Shinano, Nippon ; and a third, S. sinensis, is recorded from
Mengtze, Yunnan,
Investigation of the material contained in the national herbaria
of Kew and the British Museum, seems to point out that there
are three good species of Shortia (noted above) ;
one doubtful one,
S. rotmidifolia, described by Maximowicz as iSehizocodon, but the
corolla not seen by him ; and Shortia thibetica, more appropriately
placed as a monotypic genus.
The distinctions between the allied genera, Shortia, Scliizocodon,
and Berneuxia are not very strongly marked in every case, but
the following lists may be of some use.
Beeneuxia, Decne. in Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. xx. (1873) 159.
thibetica, Decne. I. c.—Mupin.
Syn. Shortia thibetica, Franch.
SoHizocoDON, Sieb. & Zucc. in Abh. Akad. Muench. iii. (1843)
723, t. 2.
ilicifolius, Maxim, in Bidl. Acad. Petersb. xii. (1868) 71.
Japon.
rotuudifolius, Maxim. 1. c. xxxii. (1888) 497.—Ins. Meiaco
Sima.
soldanelloides, Sieb. S,' Zucc. I. c.—Japon.
uniflorus, Maxim, in Bull. Acad. Petersb. xii. (1868)
Shortia uuiflora, Maxim.
71 =
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