2 PITTQNIA. 



time my meager knowledge of the subterranean organs in 

 eastern species was fully supplemented by careful investiga- 

 tions and full reports (the latter comprising admirable speci- 

 mens and drawings), made by two valued correspondents, the 

 one in New England, the other in New York. 



The fact is w^ell recognized, or should be, by descriptive 

 botanists, that in herbaceous plants of all kinds, characters of 

 the roots or other subterranean organs are of the very best 

 for specific distinctions. Those of pubescence, foliage, and 

 to some extent, of the flower also, are less constant within 

 specific limits than are the peculiarities of the root, wdien the 

 root happens to have peculiarities, which is however by no 

 means the rule in nature. Most commonly the roots, rhizomes, 

 tubers and other such organs will be much the same through- 

 out the whole group, ^a long series of species, or even an 

 entire genus. 



In an order so extremely natural as that of the Umbellifer^P, 



in which the fruits are so similar that plants of the same car- 



pology are sometimes placed in different genera in deference 



to merely vegetative differences, it would seem altogether 



unphilosophical to require of the fruit that it furnish specific 



characters ; or, to assume that unless the supposed members 



of a genus can be distinguished carpologically the species is 

 but one. 



As regards the life-limit in the individual plant, the species 

 of Cicuta seem to hold an intermediate place between biennials 

 and perennials. The flowering and fruiting plant in all Ameri- 

 can species at least, is sustained in part by food stored away 

 during the one or several years of immature existence. The 

 repositories of- this supply are rhizomes in some species, 

 fascicled fleshy roots in others. In either case the individunl 

 plant dies root and all on having once flowered. But not as 

 in Sanlcida Menziesn ;^ for while that multiplies by seeds 

 only, the cowbanes are all gemmiparous. While the develop- 

 ment of the stalk and naniplp iq in r\vf\cfrs^aa tlm /^v/^« ^ i\f flia 



^ Pittouia, i. 2C9. 



