On the North American Utricularia. 10 



does not resemble that of the U. macrorhiza ; but is branching, 

 the branches short, and furnished every where with utriculi. 

 I may perhaps be told, that specimens have been sent to Eu- 

 rope, and pronounced identical with what they have there • 

 but how impossible is it to compare accurately a tender and 

 delicate plant, that has been pressed and dried for months or 

 years, with another, and then to speak with certainty of differ- 

 ences which at best we must expect to find minute . ? This de- 

 pendence upon dried specimens, and the neglect of living- 

 plants are the fruitful sources of all the errors with which our 

 botany abounds. 



I have little doubt, but that the U. macrorhiza will in time 

 be found to be the same with the U. foliosa of South America. 

 A figure of this last is found in Plumier Spec. fasc. 6. Icon. 

 165. fig. 2. ; but no certain conclusions can be drawn from an 

 inspection of it, as the author himself observes, " the parts of 

 the flowers and of the fructification are rudely and imperfect- 

 ly delineated." The description of this species, as far as can 

 be collected is this : root repent, radicles without utriculi ; 

 scape many-flowered ; spur conic acute, (represented in the 

 plate as linear,) as long as the lower lip of the corolla, and 

 appressed to it ; fruit cernuous ; said to be very like the U. 

 vulgaris. 



3. U. striata. Leafless floating, scape about ten inches 

 high, furnished with one or two scales, 5 or 6-flowered ; flow- 

 ers large, yellow, upper lip of the corolla ample, expanded, 

 trilobate, the intermediate lobe striate ; lower lip subtrilo- 

 bate, the sides reflected ; palate dotted with brown ; spur 

 nearly linear, stretched out (porrectum) obtuse, emarginate, 

 appressed to the lip of the corolla, and nearly equalling it in 

 length ; root very branching, furnished with utriculi. Inha- 

 bits from New-York to Florida. Plate VI. fig. 4. 



This is the species that Pursh considered the cornuta of Mi- 

 chauv, for I was with him when he first saw it ; the description 

 in his book, however, does not suit, it being entirely copied 



