CUCURBIT ACE. E. 303 



ruta-baga turnip, and is sometimes larger than a flour barrel. Some- 

 times it is washed out of river banks and from the sides of ravines by 

 rains or freshets. It is fleshy, very bitter, and leaves a pungent sen- 

 sation in the mouth and fauces when chewed. Medicinally it is laxa- 

 tive, and is sometimes used as physic by the natives and miners of 

 California, by whom the plant is called Big-root, Giant-root, and 

 Physic-root. 



[This remarkable plant was long studied by Dr. Torrey, and indi- 

 cated by him as a new genus, to which he proposed to give the appro- 

 priate name of Megarlriza. His long delay of the publication of it 

 was owing to the difficulty he met with in his endeavors to ascertain 

 whether it comprised more than one species, the fruits sent to him in 

 spirit being various in size and form, and especially in the number 

 of ovules and seeds, these varying from one to five in each cell, and 

 when several presenting different forms, perhaps as the result of 

 mutual pressure. On the whole, it is to be gathered from his un- 

 finished notes that he regarded the forms as probably varieties of a. 

 single species. In the meantime, Naudin's investigation of the plant 

 as cultivated in France, and his reference of it to the genus Fchino- 

 cystis, came to Dr. Torrey's knowledge, but he did not complete his 

 scattered notes, or leave them in a state available for publication. It 

 is, on the whole, to be inferred that he accepted the view adopted in 

 the Genera Plantarum by Dr. Hooker, namely, that Megarhiza forms 

 a marked subgenus, distinguished from true Echinocystis by its peren- 

 nial tuberous root, ovoid turgid seeds, and very thick fleshy cotyle- 

 dons, which are hypogseous in germination. It is to be noticed that 

 Dr. Kellogg's name Marah is much the earliest, but Dr. Torrey ob- 

 jected to it as neither a native nor a personal name, nor one derived 

 from either Greek or Latin.] 



