collections began to come in more abundantly from Maine and 

 Quebec and the adjacent country, it was found that plants with 

 white berries, but otherwise agreeing with Actaea rubra, were 

 either frequent or occasional there. These plants are apparently 

 albinos (as to berries) of Actaea rubra, and have appeared in our 

 botanies, I believe correctly, as Actaea rubra f. neglecta (Gill- 

 man) Robins. I have myself had a field acquaintance with this 

 plant both in northern Maine and in Quebec, and Brother 

 Victorin writes that in Quebec it "is met with apparently in the 

 whole range. It may be frequent or not, but I incline to think 

 it is rather rare." While of the Actaea alba of our manuals he 

 says "with us is a much less universal plant. In the District of 

 Montreal it is frequent but much less than A. rubra. It is more 

 abundant in the Richelieu Valley, it also occurs in Anticosti." 



The history of our American bane-berries began in 1635 in 

 that wonderful early work by Cornut dealing with Canadian 

 plants. He had a plant which he very accurately figured (pi. 77) 

 and which he called Aconitum baccis niveis et rubris (p. 76). 

 Morison in 1680 (PI. Hist. Univ. 2 p. 8, s. 1, t. 2, f. 7) dealt with 

 a plant which he called Christophoriana racemosa americana 

 baccis niveis et rubris. This is the same plant as Cornut had. 

 In fact, it looks to me as if Morison's figure was taken from the 

 figure of Cornut. 



When Linnaeus came to deal with the matter in 1753 (Sp. 

 PI. 1:504) he had no specimens. (Jackson in Proc. Linn. Soc. 

 Suppl. 1912 p. 28.) He simply cited Cornut and Morison and 

 called their plant Actaea spicata va'r. alba. 



Miller in the eighth edition of his Gardeners Dictionary, 

 which appeared in 1768, published his Actaea alba. He cited 

 Morison, but he did not cite Linnaeus, and it is not correct 

 therefore to write Actaea alba (L) Miller. Miller grew the plant, 

 but unfortunately no specimens of his plant seem to have been 

 preserved. At least, Dr. Rendle writes that there are none in 

 the British Museum, where other specimens from Miller are 

 preserved. His description however calls for a plant "racemo 

 ovato." 



In the previous (7th) edition of his Gardeners Dictionary 

 pubhshed in 1759, Miller says he also received seeds of another 

 Actaea with red berries from North America but that these did 



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