298 Bicknell: Studies in Sisyrinchium 



sometimes twisted and undulate, strongly striate, not at all winged 

 but subterete and bluntly two-edged or obscurely margined : spathes 

 in a conjugate pair at the top of the stem, or sometimes solitary, 

 the outer one stoutly short-stipitate within the base of the com- 

 mon outer bract, each spathe consisting of two opposite pairs of 

 closely imbricated bracts 2-3 cm. long which are attenuate-lanceo- 

 late, stiff-membranous and striate, with hyaline margins, the inner 

 pair tapering into weak white-scarious acuminations, all glabrous or 

 the outermost obscurely roughened, the common outer bract very 

 slenderly prolonged for half its length and surpassing the inner 

 ones 1-5 cm.; interior scales ample, sometimes slightly exserted, 

 the larger ones even appearing like inferior bracts ; flowers appar- 

 ently only 1-3 in each spathe^ on erect, scarcely exserted pedicels 

 1.5-2.3 cm. long, mature flower not seen ; a dried and brown bud 

 from within a spathe showed unusually long and narrow anthers (4. 5 

 mm. long) cleft for the insertion of the short, partly free filaments, 

 and slender styles about 2 mm. long not, however, surpassing the 

 stamens: young capsule obovate-oblong, dark, rugulose. 



Described from a few hiiperfect specimens communicated by 

 Mr. O. A. Farwell, who collected them June 6, 1896, on ''sandy 

 shores of Belle Isle, in the Detroit River, Michigan." 



A remarkable plant not closely related to any of our species^ 

 but showing a number of striking peculiarities and even possessing- 

 claims to generic distinction. ^ ■ • • 



w^ 



. Sisyrinchium Farwellii 



Thinly tufted from a cluster of very slender wiry roots which 

 are dark and finely striate when dried, the bases of the tufts- 

 sheathed w^ith a coating of coarse dull-brown fibers. Leaves 

 and stems rather light dull-green and slightly glaucesccnt, not 

 blackening In drying, the spathes paler yellowish-green : leaves 

 apparently not more than half the height of the stem, becoming 

 3 mm. wide, firm in texture though rather thin and membranous, 

 finely nerved, attenuate-acute, the edges smooth or serrulate : stems 

 flexuous-erect, 20-30 cm. high, 1-3 mm. wide, the wings thin and 

 finely nerved, minutely aculcolate-serrulate or sometimes smooth 

 below; tracteal leaf shorter than the two or three peduncles, slen- 

 derly attenuate, below rather abruptly broadened and loosely clasp- 

 ing, the membranous sheathing base striate-nerved, the keel some- 

 times very rough-serrulate, stem sometimes bearing two rather 

 distant nodes each with its leaf and peduncles : peduncles 4-1 1 cm. 

 long, somewhat curved, approximate, very slender, mostly less. 

 than .5 mm. wide, narrowly thin-margined, smooth to ciliolate* 



