OUR AMPHIBIOUS PERSICARIAS 7 
a cette espece la Persicaria major, folivis hirsutis, gustu acerbis, 
floribus albis aut purpureis, Lobel. observat. 17, et la Persicaria 
major, caule sesquicubitalt, striato, tereti geniculato, Thalw. Tourne- 
fort. 
Observat. La racine trés-longue, de quarte pieds, trace dans la 
vase, jetant de ses noeuds des radicules; les feuilles lisses, cori- 
acées, a nervures paralléles, transversales, ciliées ou dentelées sur 
les marges; 1’épi des fleurs épais; le calice rose, ovale, campanulé 
les anthéres posées transversalement sur le filament sont de couleur 
de chair; telle est 1’aquatique; la terrestre a feuilles plus larges, 
plus dures; 4 fleurs d’un rouge-foncé.”’ 
Gilibert’s observations are not claimed by him as original, 
and he refers to Ray when he describes the two different phases, 
aquatic and terrestrial, which he says are often found on the same 
rootstock. Gilibert does not, moreover, describe the phases as 
even different varieties, which of course, we could not expect him 
to do in view of the identity of the plants phases “found even on 
the same rootstock or base.’”’ He also seems to approach the method 
of describing these phases separately though not in separate para- 
graphs, a system Dr. E. L. Greene has so often insisted on, and a 
system which alone can give a true idea of all plants that exist 
in two or several entirely distinct phases, a method too, not appeal- 
ing favorably to the authors who must be guided by the bibliopole 
aspect of the species question.* 
It is hard to convince manual makers that when phases exist 
in various stages it should be desirable to describe each in a separate 
paragraph in order to bring out differences in such a way that the 
student may recoginze them in whatever form or stage he finds 
them. Besides the Persicarias, other plants seem to show a very 
different appearance at various stages of development. Probably 
one reason why the violets are considered a difficult group of 
plants for the beginner, is that he finds them often in a stage 
of growth in which the foliage and other characters are not the 
same as the manual maker found them. Violets might well be 
described, as the amphibious persicarias should, in separate para- 
graphs for their different phases. Few there are that have not 
noted the difference between the characters of these plants in the 
stage when they bear petaliferous flowers, in contrast to that in 
which the second or cleistogamous flowers appear. 
* Am. Mid. Nat. Vol I., 248, Aug. rg10. 
