52 EARLY UNDERTAKINGS. [1835, 



proved already, although my bones ache prodigiously. 

 I have not yet botanized largely. When at Bridge- 

 water I secured all I could find of the new Carex ; 

 also C. chordorhiza, which, by the way, Crawe has 

 found in his region. I hope soon to collect more ex- 

 tensively, but in this vicinity there are no plants of 

 especial interest. I have just now a mania for exam- 

 ining and preserving the roots and fruits of our plants 

 (I make notes of everything in a copy of your " Com- 

 pendium"), and I hope to bring you a collection in this 

 way which will interest, and perhaps be of some use 

 to you. Fruits and ripe seeds are not often to be ob- 

 tained, at least in a proper state, in our herbaria. I 

 have been examining our Smilax rotundifolia. It is a 

 regular endogenous shrub, although it sometimes dies 

 nearly to the ground, but always sends out a branch 

 from the uppermost node which survives the winter. 

 It branches just as any endogen would, because the 

 terminal bud is killed ; the branches are cylindrical, 

 and increase very little in diameter after their pro- 

 duction. A cross-section shows the same structure as 

 the rattan, i. e., the vascular and woody bundles are 

 arranged equally throughout the stem. But a great 

 part of the stem is prostrate beneath the surface, and 

 it may be traced back, alive and dead, for several 

 years' growth. In fact I have not yet succeeded in 

 tracing the stem back to the true root ; all I have seen 

 are adventitious roots sent off by the nodes of the 

 stem. This is the only endogenous shrub, I presume, 

 in the Northern States. By the way, the term rhizoma 

 must be used much in descriptive botany, and be ex- 

 tended so as to include all subterranean, nearly hori- 

 zontal stems, or portions of the stem, which produce 

 roots from any part of their surface and buds from 



