
          terminal bud is killed, the branches are cylindrical and increase very 
 little in diameter after their production. A cross-section shows the 
 same structure as the rattan, ie the vascular & woody bundles are
 arranged equally throughout the stem. But a great part of the stem 
 is prostrate beneath the surface, and it may be traced back, alive 
 and dead, for several years growth. In fact I have not yet succeeded 
 in tracing the stem back to the true root: all I have seen are 
 adventitious roots sent off by the nodes of the stem. This is the only 
 Endogenous shrub, I presume, in the Northern States. By the 
 way, the term Rhizoma must be used much in descriptive botany
 and be extended so as to include all subterranean, nearly horizontal 
 stems, or portions of the stem, which produce roots from any part of 
 their surface and buds from their extremity. It occurs in a great 
 part of herbaceous perennials, and can always in practice be distinguished 
 from the root although it is still described as root in all the 
 books: witness. Hydrophyllum. Actaea. Caulophyllum. Trillium
 Convallaria, and so on to infinity.


 I am not yet perfectly satisfied about our Actaea's, thus 
 the red-berried one is now perfectly ripe, while the berries of 
 the white one are but half-grown: all the red ones so far 
 as I have seen have slender pedicels also. yet the leaves and the 
 rhizomata are exactly alike!. By the way, while I was 
 botanizing this afternoon I met with great quantities of 
 Orchis spectabilis, by far the largest and finest I ever saw:
 their leaves emulating Habenaria orbiculata. If you care
 for them in the slightest degree I will secure a sufficient 
 quantity to fill your garden. O. [Orchis] spectabilis will while in flower 
 be a very pretty spectacle. I have just received 
 a letter from Dr. Short inclosing a list of his desiderata

        