147 
saat. synonymous with Marah as here circumscribed. In 
1881 Cogniaux published in De Candolle’s Monographiae Phanero- 
gamarum his splendid monograph of this difficult Neueal Order. 
Marah was constituted a section of Echinocystis to be distin- 
guished by its enormous rootstocks, its subterraneous germination, 
and from all but § Ex-echinocystis—i.2., 2, from all but FE. lobata—by 
the irregular apical bursting of its fru it. In the same year Greene 
described a curious species from the sandy banks of the upper Gila 
River in New Mexico.* 
In 1885 the same botanist recognised the distinct Leer of the 
Big Roots inhabiting the south-west coast of California, and named 
them Echinocystis macrocarpa, believing them to be congenerie with 
the Eastern Balsam Apple (Z, hath for Shes the generic name 
has 14 years’ priority over Megarrhiza, But, in 1890, discovering 
a still earlier generic name for 6 Jast- eee ned species, 7.¢., 
aE eae of Rafinesque (1808), he eatatarrad all the seven Big 
oots to 
As he interior of California began to be more thoroughly sub- 
mitted to botanical exploration several more apoues were discovered, 
including FE. horridat and E. inermis,t by Congdon in Mariposa 
County, and E, scabrida§, which appears - ‘a nearly allied to the 
last, by Miss Alice Eastwood in Fresno County. In his enumera- 
tion of the Californian species Congdon (Erythraea, |.c.) employs 
the useful classification, which he attributes to Greene, depending 
upon the rotate or campanulate shape of the corollas e two 
‘poe added in the present paper bring the total number up to 
There has been no doubt among botanists as to the affinity inter se 
of these plants since the same remarkable vegetative characters were 
seen to be shared by so many west coast species, but Kellogg was 
the only writer who clearly showed their generic distinction ts 
the Balsam Apple (£. lobata) of the older states, which t 
resemble in flowers and fruit. Through all the numerous = ee 
of name demanded by the views of different mn upon the 
question of priority, the conception of the Big Roots as a natural 
group has remained intact. Cogniaux recognised t sae as a elton, 
a Dr. J. N. Rose has proposed their re-establishment as a 
us. || 
ere is with the help of 82 shects of excellent specimens courteously 
lent to the Royal Botanic Gardens by the Smithsonian Institution 
that I have undertaken the revision of the genus. The material 
in the Kew Herbarium is remarkably full and contains some 
particularly valuable old types, including some of Naudin’s 
specimens of E, fubacea from the Paris garden and the Columbia 
River material (£. oregona) seen b ker 
The characters by which Marah is distinct from allied genera 
having already been referred to,a more particular account of the origin 
and present position of these genera will now be given. The first 
* Megarrhiza gilensis, Greene in Bull. Torr. Club, viii, 97. 
hraea, vii (1900), 184. 
Bull. Torr. Club, 1 1903, 500. 
|| Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb., v (1897), 115. 
29173 B 
