VOL. I. ]  Dodecatheon Meadia. 19 
attention called to the operculate dehiscence of one of the western 
forms, founded upon the apparently good character a new species 
which he called D. Hendersoni in recognition of the observant bot- 
anist who made the fact known to him. Mr. E. L. Greene has since 
shown, however, that this peculiarity belongs to nearly all the forms 
found on this coast. He was mistaken in supposing that even 
D. Jeffreyi or its depauperate alpine form, var. a/pinum, has a 
strictly valvular dehiscence, for the capsule does not split through 
the base of the style, that organ, as a preliminary step, falling off 
with a small portion of the attached apex. The dehiscence is, there- 
fore, intermediate between D. Acadia ot the east, and its varieties 
ellipticum and Hendersoni of this coast. 
The length of the capsules is often extremely unequal, even in in- 
dividuals growing together, and this inequality is especially notice- 
able in var. Hendersoni, and renders comparison with the calyx o 
little diagnostic value. Dr. Gray remarks* that “the truncate ori- 
fice seems indisposed to split up at all into valves.’’ In this in- 
stance he must have been misled by immature specimens, for 
in those fully ripe the margin, as in all western forms, splits 
for a short distance into a variable number, 5-12, teeth. The so- 
called operculum, and therefore also the truncate margin of the 
capsule is usually somewhat irregular in shape. 
The stipe of the columnar placenta is as variable as the other 
parts of the plant. In var. /effreyz, which appears to have stronger 
claims to specific rank than any other form, it is very short, while 
a fruiting scape from Alaska in which the dehiscence is apparently 
valvular, has a stipe as long as the placenta. 
The seeds differ but little at the same stage of growth in any of — 
the western varieties, as far as color and reticulation go, but in both 
forms of var. Jeffreyd they are somewhat oblong in shape, their mar- 
gins produced into short wings, and the hilum instead of an umbilical 
depression, takes the form of a linear ridge. It is possible that 
D. frigidum and D. dentatum may agree with var. /Jeffreyz in these | 
particulars, and thus strengthen its claim to specific rank under the 
oldest name, but fruit of these northern forms seems to be very 
little collected, and even of typical D. AM/eadia of the east no mature 
specimens have reached the writer. Yet it is so easy to cultivate 
* Bot. Gaz. XI, 233. 
