o2 EARLY UNDERTAKINGS. [1835, 
proved already, although my bones ache prodigiously. 
I have not yet botanized largely. When at Bridge- 
water I secured all I could find of the new Carex ; 
also C. chordorhiza, which, by the way, Crawe has 
found in his region. hope soon to collect more ex- 
tensively, but in this vicinity there are no plants of 
especial interest. I have just now a mania for exam- 
ining and preserving the roots and fruits of our plants 
(I make notes of everything in a copy of your “ Com- 
pendium”’), and I hope to bring you a collection in this 
way which will interest, and perhaps be of some use 
to you. Fruits and ripe seeds are not often to be ob- 
tained, at least in a proper state, in our herbaria. I 
have been examining our Smilax rotundifolia. It is a 
regular endogenous shrub, although it sometimes dies 
nearly to the ground, but always sends out a branch 
from the uppermost node which survives the winter. 
It branches just as any endogen would, because the 
terminal bud is killed; the branches are cylindrical, 
and increase very little in diameter after their pro- 
duction. A cross-section shows the same structure as 
the rattan, i. e., the vascular and woody bundles are 
arranged ively throughout the stem. But a great 
part of the stem is prostrate beneath the surface, and 
it may be traced back, alive and dead, for several 
years’ growth. In fact I have not yet succeeded in 
tracing the stem back to the true root ; all I have seen 
are adventitious roots sent off by the nodes of the 
stem. This is the only endogenous shrub, I presume, 
in the Northern States. By the way, the term rhizoma 
must be used much in descriptive botany, and be ex- 
tended so as to include all subterranean, nearly hori- 
zontal stems, or portions of the stem, which produce 
roots from any part of their surface and buds from 
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