4 



PITTONIA. 



C. aqiiatioa, Lam. Encycl. ii. 2 : Ciciiia virosa, Crantz, Inst 

 ii. 136 ; Linn. Fl. Suec. ed. 2, 92, Fl. Lapp, ed 2, 75 ; S. F. 

 Gray, Nat. Arr. 507 ; Host, Fl. Austr. i. 385 ; Spach, Plianerog. 

 viii. 190 ; DC. Prodr. iv. 99 ; Ledeb. Fl. Ross. ii. 241 ; Baill- 

 Hist. vii. 123.— L] many of the books here cited will be found 

 the evidence that, in this Old World type of Cicuta the roots 

 are not diflPerentiated into what I have called the main and 

 the accessory. This being true of it, and there being no 

 reason for thinking that we have in America any Cicuia with 

 that root-character, I can not venture to follow those authors 

 who have assigned to the species a habitation on our side of 

 the Atlantic. I wait for evidence that such a plant is here. 

 Future field studies made in those nojthern parts of the cou- 

 tinent where it has been said to occur, may settle the; question. 

 In default of both field knowledge and autheutic specimens 

 of C. virosa I have made a somewhat extended and thorough 

 library study of it. I regret that I have not had accesslo 

 such works as the Flora Dauica in which one might hope to 

 see portrayed distinctly the subterranean organs of such a 

 long known and rather notorious herb as the Cowbane. But 

 the works both illustrated and merely descriptive which have 

 bs^n consulted are numerous, far f)eyond what the bibli- 

 ography above given would indicate : and the result is an 

 apparently well grounded conviction that the species in 

 question is, what none of the American cowbanes can well be 

 called, an aquatic ; and, what i^ of more importance, that it 

 has none other than slender-fibrous roots ; these all proceed- 

 ing not from a proper rhi/.ome, but from the sliort nearly 

 erect subterranean base of the stem. I shall here take tlie 

 freedom of quoting some of the authors, beginning with one 

 who wrote more than three centuries ago, namely Dodonixnis 

 (1585, or earlier).^ The altogether fibrous and ccmsimilar 



• These ancient antliors, to whom the nnme of botanists is uot alwavs 

 conceded (we are wout to call tliem '• herl.alist«" ), were students of 

 nature after the only safe method. They were workers along the lines 

 which lead to accurate knowledge. They stndied the entire phmt, thi^ 

 consideration of every fart of which is often declared to be the fonnda- 



