600 ■ Bickxkll: Studies j\ Sisvrinxtiium 



The Texan species will be treated separately in a subsequent 



paper. 



Sisyrinchium incrustatum 



M F 



Dull green and slightly glaucescent, turning dark when dry, 

 25-50 cm. iiigh : tufts coarsely brown fibrose at base, the slender 

 roots much elongated. Leaves more than half the height of the 

 stem, 1.5-3.5 mm- "^vide, erect, tapering to an aculeate point, rather 

 tlnn but firm and chartaceous, usually harshly rugulose-scabrous 

 between the nerves but varying from merely rugulose to densely 

 incrustate with minute pale points., strongly close-nerved and striate, 

 the striae below becoming prominent and pale in color, often with 

 a lesser alternating series : stems often somewhat curved and 

 twisted, 1.5-3 mm. wide, harsh and scabrous-rugulose like the 

 leaves, especially the prominent wings, the edges like those of the 

 leaves, closely ciliolatc-serrulate ; nodes one or two, the lower one 

 bearing an erect and prominent often much elongated leaf and two 

 or three peduncles, the uj^per one terminating an outcurvcd pro- 

 longation of the stem 4-9 cm. long and with a shorter bracteal 

 leaf and mostly three shorter peduncles ; peduncles often out- 

 curved, stout or slender, winged, stiff-ciliolate, bracteal leaves 

 harsh and striate like the lower leaves, the clasping base some- 

 what broadened and oppositely bicarinatc : spathes erect or 

 slightly bent, the subequal bracts 15-25 mm. long, stiff and 

 strongly fine-striatc, slenderly sharp attenuate to merely acute or 

 the inner one apiculate from a scarious-margined apex, the outer 

 one very narrowly hyaline-margined, smooth or obscurely scab- 

 rous-rugulo.se : scales silvery-brown, acuminate, more than three- 

 quarters the length of the inner bract; flowers 4-9, violet-blue, 

 perianth about 8 mm. long; stamineal colunni 4-5 mm. high ; 

 capsules dark, subglobose, 3-4 mm. ]n"gh on suberect slightly 

 cx.serted pedicels; seeds 1-1.25 mm. in diameter, subglobo.se, 

 finely pitted. 



North Carolina : in damp or wet sandy soil or in open grassy 

 woods, flowering in July, For.sythe Co., Winston, July, 1897, 

 W. W. Ashe; Sampson Co., W. W. Ashe; Craven Co., July 3, 



G. McCarthy, U. S. Nat. Herb. 



^/>/o 



'fP 



and 



stouter plant in every way and flowering in midsummer instead of 

 early .spring. 



Sisyrinchium versicolor 



Becoming 35 cm. high, pale green and very glaucous, not dry- 

 ing dark, the sheaths of the leaves rose -pink and the spathes 



