586 Bicknell : Studies in Sisyrinchium 



i 8. Sisyrinchium furcatum Bicknell, Bull. Torr. Club, 26: 229. 



1899 



Firmly erect or erectly ascending in close many-stemmed 

 tufts, 10-20 cm. high, rather bright yellowish-green, turning duller 

 or brownish-green when dry, usually not even glaucescent, pur- 

 plish about the nodes and bracts in most specimens, becoming 

 slightly fibrillose at base, the roots numerous and slender ; leaves 

 numerous, the basal usually over half the height of the stem or 

 longer, 0.5-2 mm. wide, closely and finely striate-nerved, slenderly 

 acute, the edges smooth or sometimes obscurely denticulate- 

 roughened, the sides below sometimes incrustate-roughened with 

 minute harsh points ; stem-leaf firmly erect, subequal with the 

 peduncles, the narrow base prominently fine-striate ; stems 0.5- 

 1.5 mm. wide, narrowly thin-winged or merely margined, the edges 

 smooth or denticulate-serrulate, the sides smooth or roughened 

 with minute whitish points ; peduncles 2-3, slender, mostly 4-6 

 cm. long, approximate or diverging, smooth or roughened and 

 denticulate ; spathes broadest at the middle, 2-3 mm. wide in the 

 pressed plant, mostly 1.5-2 cm. long, the bracts at first thinly 

 membranous and semi-transparent, delicately nerved, acute or 

 acuminate, equal or the outer one slightly the longer, rarely 3 cm. 

 in length, its margin narrowly white or purplish hyaline, united- 

 clasping for 2-5 mm. at base ; inner scales brownish tinged, about 

 half the length of the bracts ; flowers on erect pedicels little ii 

 any longer than the bracts ; perianth bright purplish-blue, the seg- 

 ments 8-12 mm. long, emarginate or rounded, aristulate ; stami- 

 neal column 4-5 mm. high, usually less than one-half the length of 

 the perianth ; anthers orange-yellow, 1.5-2 mm. long; ovary 

 closely glandular-puberulent or tomentulose. 



Additional material which has come to hand since the descrip- 

 tion of the single specimen on which the species was based permits 

 the above more comprehensive description and extension of range 

 from Louisiana to Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas. The mature 

 fruit has not yet been seen. 



* 



Mississippi : Jackson, April 3, 1900; Wm. M. Canby. 



Louisiana : Hammond, April 4, 1889 ; Lewena Gallup, " P» ne 

 lands;" type in the U. S. Nat. herb.; Opelousas, April 3, 1900; 

 Washington, April, 8, 1900, dry soil ; Biltmore herb. 



Arkansas: Prescott, April 8, 1900; B. F. Bush, "common 

 on prairie." 



Indian Territory: Muscogee, April, 1891, M. A. Carleton. 



