154 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



much confusion and uncertainty will result. We know that plants not 

 absolutely poisonous to man, may still be so to the lower animals; e. g. 

 Dr. L., a relation of ours, lost^ almost an entire herd in a sing'e niirht, 

 while crossing the Cumberland Mountains, in Tennessee. He found iu 

 their stomachs the common boneset {Enpaton'um pp.rfoHatum.^ 



We have often illustrated this pea in various ])eriodieals, by lithograph 

 and electrotypes, but regret to say we have none suitable on this occa- 

 sion. Every available means of definite knowledge should be adopted 

 where the community at large are so deeply interested. 



Eed and White Lewisia. — Lewisia rediviva; variety, alba. 



The beautiful scarlet lewism with a red root has been described and 

 figured; but the white tlowered with a white root is rare, if not a new 

 species. Our specimen of the latter, an outline sketch of which is here 

 given — No. 2. — is from Washoe, by Mr. Andrew A. Veatch, and was 

 grown by Mr. H. G. Bloomer, former Botanical Curator to the Califor- 

 nia Academy of IN'atural Sciences. 



In a pi'ospectively agricultural and horticultural point of view, proba- 

 \Ay no native plant in our State promises more for the future resources 

 of the country. Yast quantities of these roots are annually dug and 

 consumed by the Indian tribes of North America, under the name of 

 sjmtnJum. Thej' abound in concentrated nutriment, as is evident from 

 the fact that a single ounce, or even less, of the dried root, will suffice for 

 a meal to a hunter or traveller, while undergoing the greatest fatigue. 

 Mr. Geyer says : This is the racine ame.re of the Canadian voyageurs; also 

 long known by employes of the Hudson Bay Company. 



In aver}' interesting and erudite article on " The principal plants used 

 for food b}' man," b}' l)r. F. Unger, translated from the German, for pub- 

 lication in our Patent Office Reports for eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, 

 will be seen a brief allusion to this plant. See, also, W. J. Hooker's Bot. 

 Miscellany, Vol. I, page 341; also a long account in the London Journal 

 of Bot., Vol. V, page 306. Drs. Torrey & Gray's Flora of North Amer- 

 ica, treating of tlie red species, says : " The bark being stripped off, the 

 white inner portion is boiled in water, when it forms a substance similar 

 to salep, or boiled arrowroot." The dead root, according to Mr. Nuttall, 

 almost dissolves into starch by maceration in cold water. The roots are 

 so tenacious of life, that specimens in Lewis's herbarium, as Pursh rec- 

 ords, showing some signs of vegetation, were planted in a garden in 

 Philadelphia, where they grew for a year; and Douglas's specimens, 

 treated in the same way, vegetated for a short time in the garden of the 

 London Horticultural Society. 



Some authors consider this plant akin to our common purslane of the 

 gardens, while others think it more nearlj' allied to the fivoids, or ice 

 plants ; its position is near the former, or between this and the cactus 

 family, which it resembles in its choice of rocky, and otherwise ban-en 

 localities. 



When we consider how easily the tap-rooted plants are developed in a 

 rich, loose soil, there remains not the slightest doubt of our abilit}' to 

 increase indefinitely the product of this plant. The carrot is a wild 

 native plant, along roadsides almost evervM-hcre, but without a soft tap- 

 root; yet placed in a well cultivated garden for two or three years, Ave 

 all know the wonderful changes; so also is it with the common parsnip. 



Yet, if they escape, and, as we are wont to say, " run wild," their 

 peculiar root disappears, but generously returns again when suitably 



