100 Rhodora [May 



Remarks upon Mr. House's Paper on Pogonia vertu illata. — 

 In a recently published paper on Pogonia * Mr. H. D. House takes the 

 opportunity of correcting .some statements in regard to the under- 

 ground parts of Pogonia veriicxUaia. This author considers the 

 descriptions of the roots, as given in systematic literature "scanty or 

 misleading" and claims the discovery of a "perennial, horizontal 

 rhizome" in this species. He also maintains that "the roots become 

 rootstocks " .' The latter observation would, if true, be a most start- 

 ling discovery, but in regard to the matter Mr. House has certainly 

 mistaken the horizontal roots for rhizomes. What he attempts to 

 describe is quite clearly the occurrence of root-shoots, which have 

 already been described and figured as characteristic of this species 

 as well as of Pogonia ophioglosmides and of several other orchids.^ 

 When Mr. House, furthermore, states that the stem of Medeola, with 

 which this Pogonia often grows associated is green and glabrous, 

 while that of the Pogonia is purplish and covered with a white "to- 

 mentum," it is to be pointed out that it is the Pogonia which is gla- 

 brous, and the Medeola of which the stem is clothed with flocculent- 



deciduous wool. — Theo. Holm, Brookland, D. C. 



] 



' Rhodora, Jan. 1906, p. 19. 



2 Holm Theo.: Pogonia ophioglossoidcs Nutt. A morph. and anat. study. (Am. 

 Journ. Sci., Jan. 1900, p. 13.) 



[Some days after the above communication came to hand, corrections of 

 similar import were also received from Mr. House, himself. — Ed.] 



Vol. 8, no. 88, including pages 69 to 80 was iss^^ed 6 April, 1906. 



