BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 131 



feet knowledifc of tliis froniis of bii;--roote(l Cii.'-iir!ntar"rr> of our Pacific coast. P^'or tlic 

 extraordinary peculiarity in ([ucslion, hciii'j,- ouc wiiicli, iii oilier cases, is known to 

 exhibit itself iii certain species of a cenus (as in Anetii'me and Ddpli.inium), and not in 

 others, so it may in the presinit genus give aid in distinguishing the five species which 

 have been characterized upon more or less incomplete or scanty materials. 



"The first species known was from Oregon ; the specimens, being in flower only, 

 were referred in Hooker's Flora Boreal is Americana, i, 220, to t^iri/oa Anr/iddfuis, but 

 were separated in Torrey and Gray's Flora of JSTorth America, i, 542, under the name of 

 Sicyos Orer/aniiK. In the course of time it was found that there was a similar if not 

 identical species in California, and apparently more than one, that they were perennial 

 from very large and fleshy roots, that, while the flowers much resemble those of Echi- 

 /wrt/xttK, the seeds were turgid, marginless, and with thick and fleshy cotyledons. Dr. 

 Torrey, upon whom the examination of these j^lants devolved, many (about thirty) 

 years ago i)roposed for them the generic name of J/cf/arrA/gr/,- but he refrained from 

 publishing it, even omitted all mention of it in his account of Dr. Bigelow's excellent 

 collection made in AVhipple's Ex]>edition (Pacif. K. Rep. iv, 1857), although good mate- 

 rials of that and other collections were in his liands, because he could not make up his 

 mind whether he had to do with one variable species or witii two or three. But in the 

 sixth volume of the Pacif. Railroad Rep., which bears the same date of 1857, in Dr. 

 Newberry's list of plants coUecte 1 in Willianson's Expedition (p. 74), two species arc 

 enumerated, thus; 



"■ }['';/'! rrJi.i.z' I, Calip>niic-i, Torvey. Petaluma and Sonoma, California; xVpril, in 

 flower.' 



''Mcfiarrhisd On'r/riit,(, Torrey. On the shores of Klamath Lake and banks of 

 Willamette River, O. T. ; August and September, in fruit." 



"Before this, however, viz: in March. 1855, Dr. Kellogg, of San Francisco, com- 

 municated to the California Academy of Natural Sciences (Proc. Calif. Acad., i, 88), an 

 account of one of these species, apparently the second, under the name of MaraTt inuri- 



"A few year.-i later, some plants having been raised in France from Californian 

 seeds, M. Naudin (in .\nn. Sci. Nat., ser. 4, xii, 154, t. 9, under date of 185'.'), but, as the 

 letter-press shows, not printed until IstiO or ISfll), puhlished the plant which Dr. Torrey 

 had called M. Cdlifonum under the name of E ■hiiiornstia fnhaced. This extension of 

 Echiiiori/stiH was adopted bj- Bentham and Hooker in their Genera Plantarum. It was, 

 moreover, anticipated bj' Dr. Kellogg, who, in a second communication to the California 

 Academy, under date of June 4, 1855, re- describes his former Mitrc/i i/iiu'/rafiis, states 

 that it 'legitimately belongs to Eeliuux't/xtitt,'' and gives it the name of E. murlnttuK. 

 When, shortly nfter Dr. Torrej^'s death, I superintended the jjriuting of his account of 

 the plants collected on our Pacific coast in Wilkes' Expedition, I found that ho had left 

 the article on this genus unwritten, and app;ir;'iilly ha I not determined either upon the 

 number of the si)ecies or upon the distinctn(,'ss of his ))ro|)osed genus. 



"AVheu in the recent preparation of the Botany of California the subject came to 

 be studied anew by Mr. Watson, with the aid of more extensive materials, and when 

 the.se materials were found to exhibit such diversities that at least five species had to be 

 recognized (Bot. California, i, 240), with notable ditferences in ovary, fruit, seeds, clc.> 

 but no approximation to the eastern Er/iimirt/stis, it could hardly be doubted that Tor- 

 rey's genus ouu'lit to be reinstated; and this was accordingly done. 



"The M. Cdliforiiird had been raised in the Botanic Garden of Harvard University 

 many years ago, but I had not seen the germination ; and we were never able to bring 

 the. plant into blossom, as it invariably dieil down to the ground soon after making a 

 moderate growth. On germinating some fresh seeds early this s[)ring, I was somewdiat 

 surprised to find that they came \\\) in the manner of beans. Instead of remaining 



