THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF FUIRENA. 



BY B. F. BUSH. 



There has not been a clear presentation of the species of 

 this genus since Mr. Coville published his " Eevision of the 

 United States species of Fuirena " in 1890,* in which he 

 recognized three species and two varieties, one of which he 

 later on raised to specific rank. However, Mr. Coville's 

 conception of thp species was but little better than that of 

 Torrey, Gray, < hapman and various other writers, and it 

 is the purpose of the present paper to present the species 



much better 



my good 



It 



much greater amount of herbarium material than was avail- 

 able heretofore, through the kindness of Mr. C. D. Beadle 

 of the Biltmore Herbarium, of Professor Wm. Trelease of 

 the Missouri Botanical Garden, and of Mr. Eichard Eath- 



bun of 



United States National Museum, f who h 



enabled me to complete this paper by placing in my hands 

 for study all the specimens in their care. 



The distinctive characters of the 



F 



are to be found in the flowers alone, although certain other 



mentioned 



The size of the plants, hairiness of the stems and leaves, 

 and size of the inflorescence, vary so much in all the rest 

 of the species, as to be unworthy of much consideration in 

 separating the species. Given a certain amount of varia- 

 tion, however, the perianth scales, bristles and achenes ex- 



* Bull. Torr. Bot. Club. 17 : 6. (1890). 



t For the sake of convenience I have used the letters B, M and N to 

 signify specimens from the Biltmore Herbarium, the herbarium of the Mis- 

 souri Botanical Garden, and that of the United States National Museum, 



respectively 



(87) 



