Vege'J'ative Characters of 'J'he SrECiES oi 



CrcuTA, 



The notes upon this genus wliicli I published a half-year 

 since^ please me now in this only, that they contain an earnest 

 and a needed protest against the merging of (7. macuhda and 

 C. Californica in C. virosa. I also gave tlie real clew to the 

 discriminating of our species ; this, however, neither in my 

 own language, nor as any discovery of mine. I cited Asa 

 Gray, in the Torrey and Gray Flora ; and he, I find, took his 

 account of the root characters of the species directly from the 

 elder De Candolle, whose phrases in the Prodromus he merely 

 translated into English. My own observations, in the paper 

 alluded to, had been about as well unwritten ; for my remarks 

 are misapplied. In other words, and more explicitly, the 

 '' Ciciita virosa^' of my notes is far from being that species : 

 nor is that which I have called " C, Californica " the plant of 

 Gray, except in small part. It is chiefly the CEnanthc sar- 

 mentosa, var. Californica ; but it is named in our Californian 

 herbaria, and that apparently by Dr. Gray's own authority, 

 '' Cicuia Californica:^ It is therefore this CEnanthe which 

 is identified confidently encMigh with the Hclosciadiitm Cali- 

 fornicam, H. & A. 



The summer season of the year now closing brought me 

 favorable opportunities for examining the Cicutas of a large 

 area of the West,— southern California, the mountains of 

 Colorado, the elevated plains of Wyoming and Idaho, middle 

 Montana, and after these the lake region of northern LlaJio 

 and the banks of the Yakima in Washington. At the same 



' rittonia, i. 271. 



PiTTOMA, Vol. IL November 8, 18h9. pp. 1-lfi 



