MENYANTHES TRIFOLIATA. 
Buck Bean, 
— 
PLATE XLVI. 
Tue Buck bean or Marsh Trefoil is one of 
those plants which are native in Europe and 
North America, with so little difference of struc- 
ture, in the two continents, that their specific 
identity can hardly be doubted. I have com- 
pared specimens of the native, and foreign plant, 
without being able to perceive the least. definable 
difference, except in size; the American being 
smaller. ‘Yet, if we admit the statements of 
botanical writers, the plant flowers in England at 
least a month later than it does in the neigh- 
bourhood of Boston, a circumstance not usual in 
other species of vegetables. 
_ The most spongy and boggy soils, hich are 
inundated at certain seasons, and never wholly 
destitute of water, are the favorite situations of the 
Menyanthes trifoliata. It often constitutes large 
