Tab. 5714 



EEYTHEONIUM giganteum. 



Gigantic Erythronium. 



Nat. Ord. Liltace;e. — Hexandeia Monogynia. 



Gen. Char. Perianthium corollinum, persistens, late campanulatum, 

 6-phyllum ; foliolis subwqualibus, interioribus basi callosis. Stamina 6, 

 3 interiora hypogyna, 3 exteriora basi f'oliolorum adha?rentia. Ovarium 

 brevissime stipitatum, 3-loculare ; stylus terminalis, stigmate 3-lobo v. 

 3-partito ; ovula in loculis numerosa, 2-seriata. Capsula 3-gona, 3-locu- 

 laris, polysperma. Semina ovoidea, inversa, testa fusca; chalaza terminali, 

 caudieula basi tumida instnicta; embryo minimus. — Herbae bulbosa, sub- 

 acaules, scapiqerce, in Europa et Asia media et America boreali indigent. 

 Folia scepius 2-na. Scapus l-S-Jlorus ; floribus majusculis nutantibus. 



Ebytheoniuh giganteum ; foliis 2 amplis obovato-oblongis obtusis fusco- 

 maculatis, sc'apo elato 2-3-floro, floribus 3 unc. diam. albis, petalis 

 ovato-lanceolatis, lamina alba, ungue aureo et aurantiaco fasciato, 

 antberis flavis, stigmatis lobis subelongatis. 



Eeytheonium giganteum. Lindl. in Bot. Beg. v. 21. sub t. 1786. Kuntfi, 

 Enum. v. 4. p. 219. 



Eettheonium grandiflorum, var. y. albiflorum. Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. r. 11. 

 p. 182. 



This is by far the handsomest species or variety of Erf' 

 thronium hitherto introduced into this country. It is a na- 

 tive of North-west America, and was communicated from the 

 Edinburgh Botanic Garden in April of the present year. 1 

 have had some difficulty in determining what name it should 

 bear, the Herbarium specimens of the West American forms 

 of the genus (E. grandiflorum, Pursh, E. giganteum, Lindl, 

 and E. rewlutum, Sm.) being utterly indistinguishable in a 

 dry state ; and their published characters being founded on 

 the colour of the flowers,— white, yellow, and purple— they 

 have been all reduced, and, I suspect, very properly, to one 

 species, in the ' Flora Boreali-Americana.' 



E. giganteum was discovered by Douglas, who does not 

 notice the colour of the flower, nor does Lindley, in his 

 diagnosis of it above quoted. They would appear to be 

 white in Douglas's own specimens preserved in the Hook- 



june 1st, 1868. 



