SOME CRITICAL SPECIES OF ECHIUM. 405 
Hamuli, infimis exceptis, simplices, usque ad 1-2 em. nudi, ibique robus- 
tiores in cincinnos geminos :equales bifurcantur, debiliores cincinno 
unico terminantur. 
Cincinni initio brevissimi, valde scorpioidei, deflorati erecti vel erecto- 
patentes usque ad 8-10 em. (15-20 em. in var. Biebersteinii) producuntur. 
Inflorescentia in typo spiciformis, sub anthesi c. 45 x 5 em., post anthesin 
c. 45 x 8-12 em. ; in var. Biebersteinii conica, propter axem centralem 
ramos inferiores, quamvis elongatos, fere duplo excedentem. Flores, 
ut in genere, distiehi, subunilaterales, confertissimi, bracteis anguste 
lanceolatis calycem (laciniis inclusis} c. 6-7 mm, longum æquantibus. 
Corolle parvee subregulares, c. 12 mm. longze, tubo fere recto, extus pilose, 
pilis paucis longioribus strigosis intermixtis, sordide albz vel sube . 
ruleo-albescentes ; filamentis concoloribus. Stamina longissime exserta 
seepius corollam fere duplo superantia. 
Folia radicalia angusta, longa vel longissima ; evoluta 30 x 2-3 cem.; 
caulina lanceolata, superiora 4-8 em. lo: 
excedentia *. 
iga, cincinnos floriferos longe 
Indumentum e pilis strigosis, confertissimis (precipue in var siculo), 
inzequalibus sed homomorphis, in sicco lutescentibus f. 
But the name italicum L., though it must exclude pyrenaicum, will cover 
the breader conical form which oceurs frequently in the Balkans and in 
Greece, and in Southern France seems to be more usually met with than 
altissimum, from which, however, it certainly cannot be specifically separated, 
having the same system of ramification with the very predominant central 
axis, and the tendency, even in a greater degree, to produce subsidiary stems 
from the base. It also has the long, narrow, hairy, hardly tuberculate root- 
leaves, the small pale yellowish or bluish-white corollas, showing cream- 
colour like the pale filaments in sicco, and the yellowish indumentum. The 
outline of the inflorescence is conical rather than pyramidal, the height being 
at least double that of the base; it measures about 40 em. by 20-25 cm., 
and shows a similar ratio in smaller examples. This outline is due to a larger 
number of the lower axillary branches being prolonged, and themselves 
bearing rather widely spaced short branchlets, each consisting of single or 
twin cincinni. I am unable to discover any other difference from altissimum, 
and as it does not seem really to be a geograpical race, altissimum also being 
found in the Balkan region, it is almost going too far to give it a name as a 
variety. However, for greater clearness I shall call it var. Biebersteinii = 
* So Moench, Suppl. p. 149 (1802), says of his linearifolium = italicum, L., * caule erecto 
simplici, spicis foliis brevioribus." 
T E. luteum, Lap., Abr. Pyr. p. 91, is said by the author to be covered with pungent 
hairs, long and. yellow, as well as the flowers; but there is not a word to suggest that the 
corollas themselves are yellow, except the erroneous reference of the name to Desfontaines, 
who has no E. luteum. Of course, his E. flavum was inteuded, which, however, is an 
altogether different species. 
