

Remarks on the Genus Actjea. 



While we are not generally credited with more than two 

 species of Baneberry in Americaj and one of these is loosely 

 regarded now as a mere variety of the Old World Acicea 

 spicaia^ I have latterly grown confident that that species is 

 not with us at all, and that we may perhaps be shown to have 

 three or four of our own. The genus will furnish a fine 

 subject of investigation to any botanist of experience who, 

 having a shady garden-corner to spare, will procure seeds 

 from as many quarters of the globe as possible, and study 

 the plants for successive seasons in the living state. The 

 caducous sepals, the more delicate and scarcely more per- 

 sistent petals, the baccate nature of the fruit, the more or 

 less tuberous roots — all these and some other circumstances 

 render it next to impossible to preserve in the herbarium the 



characteristics of species. 



1- A, ALBA, Mill. Diet. (1768); Eaf. in Am. Monthly 

 Magazine, ii. 266 (1818); Bigel. in Eat, Man, ed. 3. 155 

 (1822).— In Watson's Index the Fourth Edition of Eaton 

 (1824) is cited for the original publication of this now 

 familiar name. Dr. Bigelow himself appears to have been 

 no better versed in the botanical literature of his o^n period ; 

 otherwise he would not have claimed Actcea alia as his own, 

 at firat four years, and again six years after it had been 

 published by Rafinesque. But that all American authors 

 down to the present, should have overlooked the fact that 

 Philip Miller had given the plant specific rank, with jubt this 



name, is a little surprisirg. 



The absolute character of this species is the enlargement 

 of the pedicels after flowering, not the color of the berries ; 

 for these are sometimes pure white, sometimes red, in all our 



PiTTONiA, Vol. II. December 24, 1890. pp. 107-158. 



