CHARACTERS OF BRITISH PLANTS. yal 
species in Britain, in addition to these two? On the contrary, 
I venture to ask whether these two are fairly established? If 
distinct, they are ill described. Their specific distinctions 
are taken from the presence or absence of: a general invol- 
ucrum—the broad or narrow leaflets of the radical leaves— 
and the form of the root. In the Manual, the former species 
is described with a “general involucrum of many leaves, 
sometimes wanting,’ and my specimens shew both states. 
This negatives the value of the first character. With regard 
to the second, it is to be observed, that the specimens of Œ. 
peucedanifolia in Smith's herbarium, as also the figure in 
English Botany, are without radical leaves. And the state 
of my specimens leads to the surmise that (E. pimpinelloides 
loses its true radical leaves early when growing luxuriantly in 
watery situations, and then appears to produce only leaves 
with narrow leaflets. Thirdly, I suspect the roots to have 
been imperfectly understood by English authors. In Œ. 
pimpinelloides the stem dies away after the seed has ripened. 
Young plants grow up around its base, in the form of suckers. 
The roots of these young plants at first consist of a cluster of 
filiform fibres. When the plants are more advanced in 
growth we find fibres which have thickened much for a part 
of their length, so as to form one elliptical or fusiform tuber- 
cle on each fibre. The upper portion of the fibre above the 
tubercle usually remains thin, and forms a peduncle by 
which the tubercle is attached to the base of the stem. The 
peduncles vary in length on the same plant. If nearly obli- 
terated (by the tubercle forming near the base of the growing 
stem, or being much elongated) we may have a root such as 
is represented in the figure of (E. peucedanifolia of English 
Botany, plate 348. If the tubercle is very short, and far 
down the fibre, we have the root of (E. pimpinelloides, which 
is but partially represented in English Botany, (Plate 347) 
the peduncles only being there figured. Though I have 
seen sessile and shortly pedunculated tubercles on the same 
plant (of Œ. pimpinelloides ?) I have never noticed any 
root with a cluster of tubercles so very close to the 
