CROOMIA PAUCIFLORA. FEW-FLOWERED CROOMIA. I 27 



stems of Crooiuia, the plant was really monocotyledonous, and 

 this necessitated again a removal to Roxburghiacecs, a very 

 small order of Asiatics, not far removed from the Arum-like 

 plants. On the other hand, it is extremely interesting to note 

 that the Menispeinnaccous plants, with which our Croomia was at 

 first associated, though certainly dicotyledonous, often have endo- 

 genous wood, and is thus on the exact opposite side of the scale. 

 Yet another very interesting fact may be noted in the same con- 

 nection. Sachs, in his celebrated " Text-Book of Botany," shows 

 that the normal condition of Menispermaceons plants is the tri- 

 merous verticil, or one formed on the plan of three, and as this is 

 the usual type on which endogenous plants are formed, it would 

 not be at all improbable that the early relationship, as suggested 

 by Nuttall, was not so very far away after all ; and the student 

 will not fail to observe that though for systematic purposes the 

 great divisions of the vegetable kingdom have to be spoken of 

 as if they are divided by lines definitely drawn, they are yet so 

 closely blended by nature, that there is no doubt one has grown 

 out of, and was once a part of the other; and it proves the unity 

 of plan on which are formed the many diversified features of 

 vegetation. 



Another very remarkable fact in connection with Croouiia is 

 noted by Professor Asa Gray in the "American Agriculturist" 

 for 1875. Some forty years previously Mr, Croom discovered in 

 Western Florida a kind of yew, subsequently named Torreya 

 taxifolia, and underneath the trees were growing plants of the 

 Croomia. Now in Japan another species of Torreya has been 

 discovered, and also beneath this Japan species another species 

 of Croomia has also been found growing ; and as both the yew 

 and the Croomia are very rare, only a few localities being known 

 for them in this country, the companionship of the two in these 

 different parts of the world is among the most wonderful facts in 

 botanical geography. Thus, though we may not see much 

 beauty in the plant itself, we cannot but be interested in the 

 wonderful story it tells, and we may truly exclaim with Thomson, 



