76 General Notes. 
3 covered with a healthy cortex, and there is no sign of decay about 
:. Around the margin of the cavity are the remains of several 
■ this portion the buds for the annual 
part below the bend was vertical, while that above was inclined. The 
root grew upon a hillside and its upper portion was nearly if not 
quite perpendicular to the surface of the ground. The bend was 
probably occasioned by the slow sliding of the upper strata of the 
soil down the hill. The branches are much smaller where they 
emerge from the main root, and enlarge considerably within the first 
six or eight inches. 
The smaller root (Fig. 2) measured when taken from the ground 
nearly four feet in length, and had a diameter of about eight inches. 
It is regular in form, and is not much branched. Its crown is ex- 
tended into a neck five or six inches long, and upon the upper part of 
this are the remains of the branching stems. 
Both roots are very fibrous internally, almost woody in fact, but 
they contain also an enormous amount of stored up nourishment for 
the rapid development of the annual stems. The first (i) weighed 
eighty pounds when fresh, and the second (2) thirty-three. But this 
store of nourishment is amply protected against the hungry gophers, 
moles, m.ice, rabbits, squirrels and larger animals, for it is intensely 
bitter. In the struggle for existence those only have remained whose 
bitterness was sufficient to overcome the hunger and thirst of the ani- 
mals of the plains. 
The second big-rooted plant is the Wild Morning Glory i^Ipomaa 
leptophylla Torr), a beautiful plant of a bushy habit, bearing numer- 
ous large pink-purple flowers closely resembling those of the common 
cultivated Morning Glory of the gardens. The stems are numerous 
and branching, but not twining, and they rarely attain a height o< 
more than a couple of feet. 
The root is enormous, often approaching the size of that of the 
Wild Pumpkin. A specimen in my laboratory is shown in Fig. 4- 
It is nearly three feet in length, and evidently was originally much 
larger, and has a diameter of eight inches. As may be seen, it 
branches at about fifteen or sixteen inches from the top. On the 
one side there were originally several branches, but on the other but 
one. This shows, also, the peculiarity noticed above of the smaller 
size of the branch root at the point of its origin, and its subsequent 
enlargement. 
Both of these plants come down upon the plains to about the 
100th meridian. In northern Nebraska at Long Pine, I have seen 
the Wild Morning Glory ten or twelve miles east of that meridian. 
The wild pumpkins are abundant in Lincoln County (south of the 
Platte River), not more than fifteen or eighteen miles west of the 
line mentioned. — Charles E. Bessey. 
