14 The Botanical Gazette. [January, 
ARALIA NUDICAULIS L. Wild sarsaparilla. 
I find in my herbarium a fruiting specimen of wild sarsapa- 
rilla, which I collected July 19, 1883, in Shelburne, N. H., 
among the White mountains. The tough perennial root, one 
fourth of an inch in diameter, ran horizontally a few inches 
below the surface in opposite directions from the main stem. 
I dug it up till it broke, and on measurement found that I 
had a root eight and one half feet long. By coiling the two 
ends up to the stem, I easily made a good mounting speci- 
men, which shows that far the greater part of the plant is 
under ground. It takes a separate mounting sheet to show 
one of the three divisions of the large compound leaf. Smaller 
specimens show the whole leaf of various sizes. Beside this 
large specimen I have put a very young plant, collected 
May 12, 1883, in Belmont, Mass. The scape is two inches, 
and the leaf three inches high. 
GALIUM ASPRELLUM Michx. Rough bedstraw. 
This species of bedstraw, which grows throughout the 
Gray Manual range, has a fine development of root-stock. I 
collected a specimen Sept. 6, 1889, in E. Jaffrey, N. H., and 
it takes an entire mounting sheet to show the underground 
growth. The root-stocks branch very freely from the stem, 
the longest one being two feet. They run along but a short 
distance under the surface of the ground, and root copiously 
at the nodes, which are about one inch apart. Young plants 
are sent up occasionally from the nodes. On my single speci- 
men I count fifteen of these plants, varying from less than an 
inch to five inches in length. 
ASTER ACUMINATUS Michx. 
In adeep, rich wood at Rye Beach, N. H., Aug. 19, 1886, 
in company with Woodwardia angustifolia Smith, which was 
extremely abundant, I found this aster growing in the great- 
est profusion. It reached a perfect development here, for 
the plants ran as high as two and one-half feet. I took upa 
specimen which showed very beautifully the slender under- 
ground stems, connecting different plants. From a rootstock 
several inches below the surface, three rootstocks branched at 
intervals of about an inch. Each of these stocks, which 
were all fifteen inches in length, bore a vigorous plant, the 
one which [ retained for my herbarium being two and one- 
