AMERICAN HEMLOCK, 127 
The species maculata has a fascicled root and 
oblong leaves with mucronate serratures. 
The class and orders are as in the last article. 
This plant is so remarkable for the form of its 
root, that had not the name of maculata been con- 
firmed to me by the best authorities, I should 
haye thought that of fasciculata to be greatly pre- 
ferable. This root is composed of a number of 
large, oblong, fleshy tubers, diverging from the 
base of the stem, and frequently being found of 
the size and length of the finger. The root is pe- 
rennial, and has a strong, penetrating smell and 
taste. In various parts of the bark it contains 
distinet cells or cavities, which are filled with a 
yellowish resinous juice. The plant is from three 
to six feet high. Its stem is smooth, branched at 
top, hollow, jointed, striated, and commonly of a 
purple colour, except when the plant grows in the 
shade, in which ease it is green. The leaves are 
compound, the largest being about three times pin- 
nate, the uppermost only ternate. Most of the pe- 
tioles are furnished with long obtuse stipules, 
which clasp the stem with their base. _Leafets ob- 
long acuminate, serrate, the serratures very acute or 
mucronated. ‘The yeins end in the notches, and not 
at the points of the serratures. The flowers grow 
in umbels of a middling size, without a general inyo- 
17 
