503 



Remarks on (Enanthe Lachenalii. By George Fitt, Esq. 



There being some discrepancy between the statements of Messrs. 

 Watson and Lees in the ' Phy tologist ' respecting the form of the roots 

 of this plant, I thought that if I could obtain some Yarmouth speci- 

 mens, they would perhaps throw light on the subject in dispute. 



Most of the roots which I had seen differed considerably from that 

 figured by Mr. Lees ; and Mr. Watson having, for the most part, 

 figured only single tubers, I felt sure that the roots of our Yarmouth 

 plant were not described in the papers of those gentlemen. 



At the time I read their remarks, the ditches in which our plant 

 principally grows, were covered with ice : by breaking it, however, I 

 succeeded in obtaining a few small roots, which I found by the leaves 

 appearing beneath the surface of the water. Of these specimens I 

 sent a i&w to each of the above-named gentlemen. The ice having 

 entirely disappeared a few days after, I easily obtained a larger sup- 

 ply, a selection from which, now in Mr. Newman's possession, have 

 already been alluded to on the cover of the 'Phytologist' of last 

 month. 



The first thing apparent in these is the constant presence of tubers 

 intermixed with fibrous roots, but on closer inspection the tubers are 

 found to be attached to the withered stem of last season, and the fi- 

 brous roots to be of a more recent growth and proceeding from an off- 

 set, now in course of development, and which is to be the plant of 

 next season. This may be proved by any specimen ; for simply by 

 the pressure of the finger the offset will break from the old stem, 

 which will then be found adhering to the tubers, and the fibrous roots 

 proceeding firom the offset. In some instances the tuber appears to 

 have been buried an inch or two beneath the surface of the mud, to 

 which it has sent up a stem, and where a whorl of fibrous roots have 

 been produced. This will be clearly understood by a glance at the 

 annexed figure, selected from many similar ones, as best showing this 

 peculiarity, as well as the twofold character of the root. The speci- 

 men itself is now in Mr. Newman's hands. 



The upper portion of this root, a, a, which might be easily sepa- 

 rated from the lower, if caution were not used in taking it up, repre- 

 sents the fibrous root of Lachenalii, as figured by Mr. Lees, and the 

 lower portion, 6, 5, resembles his figure of peucedanifolia. In those 

 roots which have not sunk beneath the surface of the mud the offsets 

 grow out of the woody crown which unites the tubers, and then the 

 two kinds of root are mingled together, and their different age is not 



