’ 
18 Dodecatheon Meadia. [ZOE 
originate from them, and can always be distinguished from seed- 
lings by the primary leaf which, although resembling the cotyledons, 
is solitary. ‘ 
The petals of Dodecatheon, and sometimes the sepals and sta- 
mens may be more or less than the normal number, five, and one 
of these variations i§ the basis of the recent species, D. cruciferum 
Greene. They are usually, but not “invariably,” four in that, the 
common form about San Francisco otherwise absolutely identical 
in all its parts with the one found in the foothills of the Sierra Ne- 
vada, which has usually, but not invariably, a 5-parted. calyx and 
corolla. 
D. Meadia var. alpinum and D. Jeffreyi are also in most cases 
4merous. D. Meadia var. brevifolium, of the Botany of Cali- 
fornia, has 4-9, very commonly 6 petals, though the sepals and 
stamens are very rarely more than five. 
There has been some dispute as to whether the filaments of Dode- 
catheon are truly connate in a ring, and Dr. Gray in his latest revision 
re-establishes D. frigidum principally on the ground that the very 
short filaments are unconnected, although Chamisso & Schlechten- 
dal* in the original description say they are connate, and it may be 
easily demonstrated in this case as in the forms known as D. Jef- 
Jreyi and var. alpinum which usually have sessile anthers, that the 
filaments are truly united into a tube which js adnate to, though 
easily separable from, the whole length of the corolla tube, and that 
in this regard the varieties, and even the individuals, differ simply 
in the length of the filaments. 
No constant character can be found in the more or less thickened 
dorsal folds of the filament and connective, which apparently serve 
to secure the introrse opening of the anthers and include till after 
fertilization, the afterward elongating stigma. The color of the an- 
thers, and even their relative length and slenderness, are not more 
to be relied upon, for any large suite of specimens will readily show 
that in these particulars the individuals of each of the forms, espec- 
lally of that known as D. ellipticum, differ widely amongst them- 
selves. : 
” The characters drawn from the capsule are in the light of recent © 
observations almost equally unreliable. Dr, Gray having had his 
in 
*Linnza, I, 223. 
