352 
(1893). Dr. Britton, however, in his ‘Catalogue of Plants found 
in New Jersey” (1889), again accords both plants full specific 
rank. That this understanding of the problem is the only one 
which the facts allow does not admit of any question whatever. 
The most zealous reductionist need have no trouble in assuring 
himself of this, provided only that ordinary eyesight and an open 
mind be not wanting to his equipment. Indeed, as species present 
themselves, these two plants must be regarded as not even very 
closely related within their common genus. The trouble all along 
has been that we have unwittingly been seeking to force four dis- 
tinct species into the limits defined for two. As an inevitable re- 
sult these two, though wholly distinct, have been seen under such 
confused outlines as to make it appear quite impossible to assign 
any constant characters to either. It thus becomes necessary to 
diagnose them anew in connection with the description of their 
long over-looked congeners. 
It has not been ventured to define two new eastern species of 
this difficult genus without considering very carefully their rela- 
tionships with the species already known, at the same time keep- 
ing in mind the harmfulness of distinctions too finely drawn. The 
danger of fallacious distinctions, however, proves not to press at 
all closely in the present case. A critical study from herbarium 
specimens of the four plants here presented, which has supple- 
mented an intimate acquaintance with three of them in the field, 
enables me without any reservation to subscribe them all as 
authentic and well-defined species. 
Sanicula Marylandica LL. 
. Commonly two or three feet high—one-and-a-half to four feet; 
stem single, or two or three together from the same rootstock, tet 
minating in a general umbel which is usually but 14 to 4 the length 
of the entire plant; there is frequently also a short, imperfectly um- 
bellate lateral branch. Leaves thickish, dull bluish green, two Of 
three on the stem between the basal leaf and the involucre; basal 
leaves several, on long erect petioles, only one of them cauline, the 
others rising separately from the rootstock; free stem-leaves near ly 
or quite sessile, or the lowermost short-petioled ; involucral leaves 
usually much reduced, sometimes under an inch long, cleft or 
parted, not divided into separate leaflets; larger leaves five-divided, 
appearing seven-divided from the deep partition of the basal leaf- 
lets; upper leaves five-divided, or appearing so. The leaves ge 
