THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 99 



It is one of the few species able to form adventitious buds on 

 its roots and may be easily multiplied like horse-radish. It 

 stands the winters of Northern Illinois without protection and 

 begins to push up early in spring. At this time earth is heaped 

 over the buds to the depth of perhaps a foot, and when the 

 sprouts show at the top of this, the earth is removed and the 

 sprouts cut off level with the soil. The stalks are usually eaten 

 like celery. They have a distinct salty flavor and are otherwise 

 much like a bit of raw cabbage, though much tenderer. — Ed.] 



THE INDIGEN AND THE CULTIGEN 



TF an author were to prepare a flora or manual of cultivated 

 ■*■ plants in any country, he would come hard against the fact 

 that he deals with two gentes or types of species One gens has 

 recorded origin, with the typical form well recognized and 

 probably represented by a type specimen in the herbarium of 

 the person who founded the species. It is an indigen of known 

 habitat. The other gens is a domesticated group of which the 

 origin may be unknown or indefinite, which has such charac- 

 ters as to separate it from known indigens and which is prob- 

 ably not represented by any type specimen or exact description, 

 having therefore no clear taxonomic beginning. I trust I may 

 be pardoned for calling such species or group a cultigen. 



A good example of the cultivated indigen is Thuja occi- 

 dentalis. Although there are many horticultural forms of this, 

 their relationship is understood. We are familiar with the 

 species in the wild and we have the whole case before us. The 

 variations under domestication are indeed great, but we readily 

 range them with what we call the species itself. 



A good example of the cultigen is Zca mays. We know 

 neither its country nor its origin. It is widely variable. If a 

 botanist had before him good material of all these variations 



