No. 536] 



JEAN MARCH ANT 



503 



The flowers which were collected in small clusters ( H. nat. size) opened 

 successively only. Their color approached a greenish yellow. They 

 consisted of a calyx of three leaves C of an oval shape, shell-like, sepa- 

 rated from each other at their point of origin by a cluster of ten or 

 twelve very fine and very short filaments D which had no tips." The 

 flower was but a line in diameter and its pedicel was so short that it 

 was hardly visible. 



The root of this plant was a little less thick than its stem. It was 

 from four to five inches long, twisted, forming slight undulations 

 throughout its whole length, accompanied by several fibers similarly 

 undulating and hairy, which branched of in all directions. Its internal 

 substance was very white, hard and covered with a more or less fleshy 

 bark of a white-yellow color. 



The entire plant on being rubbed had a rank unpleasant odor and a 

 nauseous flavor having something nitrous about it. closely approaching 

 the taste of the common Mercury. 



This plant persisted until the end of the month of December, after 

 which it dried up and perished entirely. 



ing year. Until the end of the month of March I noticed nothing of 

 that for which I was looking; but in April I saw appear six plants, of 

 which four seemed to be the plant which just now has been described. 

 The two others were slightly different from the preceding, in that they 

 had larger leaves. These and the others increased in size, and I had the 

 pleasure to observe among these six plants a second species which as 

 yet was unknown to us, as will be seen from the following description; 



without cultivation in the same portion of the garden. Wo shall name 

 this second species. Mercurialis altera foliis in rarias <{• incequales laci- 



It produces a root three or four lines in diameter and six inches long, 

 knotty, provided from its upper portion with several fibrous roots of 

 the same length, much contorted in small equal undulations, which twist 

 towards the bottom of the soil, covered by a quantity of hairy fibers, 

 which extend laterally around the root. Their surface is com r " 

 a chapped, fleshy pellicle of a dirty-white color, which covers 



