BicKNELL : Studies in Sisvrinchium 609 



■ m 



quarters the height of the stems, closely erect, almost filamentary, 

 mostly .05 mm. or less wide and strongly 2-4-striate, very smooth, 

 attenuate-acute, in age often developing hardened tips : stems 

 squall}' slender with the leaves, wiry and subterete, not winged but 

 narrowly firm-margined, the edges smooth : spathes mostly two or 

 sometimes single, rarely three together, sessile at the top of the stem 

 and closely subtended by an elongated primary bract, very small, 

 10-13 mm. long, the bracts subequal, mostly very acute or aculeate, 

 somewhat membranous but distinctly nerved, glabrous, the mar- 

 gins conspicuously white-hyaline ; primary bract straight and se- 

 taceously slender, usually much elongated, 2-8.5 cm. long,^ the 

 edges narrowly white-hyaline towards the striate base which is on 

 both sides rather abruptly broader than the stem ; interior scales 

 silvery-white, usually but little shorter than the bracts : flowers 

 light violet-blue on slenderly exsertcd, loosely erect, or finally 

 flexuously spreading pedicels; perianth 6-8 mm. long; stamineal 

 column about 4 mm. high : capsules pale, subglobose, 2-3 mm. 

 high ; seeds irregularly obovoid-subglobose, black, distinctly alve- 

 olate, about .75 mm. in diameter. 



North Carolina to Florida, mostly in flat sandy woods, flower- 

 ing in April and May. 



North Carolina : " Read," Herb. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil.: Selma, 



April, 1899, \V. W. Ashe. 



South Carolina: Aiken, May, 1899, W. W. Ashe. 



Georgia : Brunswick, April 16, 1899, W. W. Ashe. 



Florida : South of Jacksonville, fourteen and twenty miles, 



May 13 and 18, 1899, W. W. Ashe. 



An exceedingly delicate plant, being one of the most slender 

 species of the entire genus. In its most slender state, the stems 

 and leaves appear almost thread-form, yet the plant may be 

 equally tall with some of the stoutest species. 



Sisyrincliium dichotomum 



Dull yellowish-green and glaucescent, not turning dark when 

 dry, 30-40 cm. high, in thin erect tufts, not fibrose-coated at base, 

 the' roots slender and simple or nearly so. Leaves rather few, 

 mostly about half the height of the plant, or a few longer, some- 

 what openly erect, 2-6 mm. wide, often broadened upward to 

 above the middle and tapering-acuminate, rather thin but firm, 

 minutely crystalline-puncticulate, the broader ones somewhat dis- 

 tantly striate-nerved, the edges very minutely close-serrulate to 

 nearly smooth : stems broadly thin-winged and similar to the 



