the adjacent mountainous country, (but whether indigenous or 
not he does not mention), and thence he took plants, which he 
placed in his garden at Trinidad, where the roots attained a 
good size ; but, probably owing to a too great degree of heat, 
they did not flower. From Trinidad they were sent to us. 
It is remarkable that Humboldt does not appear to be 
acquainted with this plant. Under his description of the Co- 
nium moschatum, indeed, which grows in cold places in the 
Province of Los Pastes, near Teindala, at an elevation of about 
8400 feet above the sea, and where the plant is called by the 
natives Saccliaracha, he questions whether, as the vernacular 
name would seem to intimate, the true Arracacha, so famous 
for its esculent roots, may not be allied in species to it. I was 
indeed disposed, from Humboldt's figure and description, to 
consider the two plants as the same species ; but afterwards, 
on comparing them more carefully, I thought it better to hold 
them distinct. The more compound leaves, the segments far 
less acuminated and less deeply serrated, and, at least when 
dry, spotted ; the umbel much larger, with a trifid involucre, 
and a larger fruit, which is also broader at the base ; these cir- 
cumstances, though indicating a close alliance of the two plants, 
and in themselves perhaps variable, have actuated me to con- 
stitute the Arracacha a new species. 
Fig. 1. Abortive flower. Fig. 2. The same, deprived of its petals. Fig. 3. 
Male flower. Fig. 4. Perfect flower. Fig. 5. Petal. Fig. 6. Stamen. 
Fig. 7- Fruit (scarcely ripe). Fig. 8. Transverse section of the fruit.—- 
All more or less magnified. 
