382 Dr Graham's Description of New or Rare Hants. 



peduncles (above 2 inches long), nodding, dark blood-red, obscurely tes- 

 selated, pale, more yellow and more distinctly variegated within, nec- 

 taria linear ; outer petals oblong slightly spreading at the apices, inner 

 broader obovate connivent at the apex. Stamens subequal, about half 

 the length of the corolla ; filaments subulate, slightly dilated at the base, 

 and very sjiaringly glanduloso-pubescent ; anthers oblong, yellow ; pol- 

 len granules small, oblong, yellow. Pistil rather longer than the sta- 

 mens ; stigma tripartite, erecto-patent, green ; style triangular, cleft to 

 about its middle, the stigmatic surface extending along the inside of 

 the segments ; germen of uniform diameter from end to end, distinctly 

 grooved along the angles, and more obscurely along the sides ; ovules 

 very numerous, 2-rowed in each cell. 

 This plant was obtained by David Falconar, Esq. from Mr Goldie, who 

 brought it from Russia. It flowered in the garden at Carlowrie, in the 

 beginning of May, the same season in which it was found by Ledebour 

 to flower in its native stations in Altai. It varies a little in the wild 

 state. I have native specimens both from Dr Fischer of St Petersburg 

 and from Ledebour. The former are smaller, but the flower is larger, 

 and the leaves, which are longer and narrower, are collected nearer to 

 the flower. Even in a wild state, it appears from Ledebour that occa- 

 sionally, though rarely, there are more flowers than one on the stem, 

 and the two lowest leaves are sometimes subopposite. I cannot but 

 think that this plant scarcely differs more from F. meleagris than some 

 of the acknowledged varieties of this species. The great length of the 

 pendulous part of the stem or peduncle, which Ledebour considers charac- 

 teristic, and which is figured in his beautiful illustrations of the Flora 

 Altaica, is not possessed by my native specimens, nor by Mr Falconar^s 

 plant, and the flower in the figure is much less lurid, and longer in pro- 

 portion to its breadth, than in any of these. 



Leontice altaica. 



L. altaica ; folio caulino solitario, petioli a basi tripartiti ramulis seg- 

 menta 5 oblonga Integra subpetiolulata palmatim disposita gerentibus 

 — Ledebour. 

 Leontice altaica, Pall. Act. Petrop. 1770» p. 257. t. viii. f. 1, 2, 3 — Willd. 



Spec. PI. 2. 149 — Pers. Svnops. 1. 386 — De Cand. Syst, Nat. ii. 26 



Ibid. Prodr. 1. 110 Spreng. Syst. Veget. 2. 121 — Schult. Syst. Veget. 



2. 22 — Ledebour, Fl. Altaica, 2. 52 Bot. Mag. 3245. 



Description- — Root tuberous. Stem erect, succulent, green, purple at the 

 base. Leaf solitary, petioled, petiole 3-paitite, segments spreading, 

 each bearing upon its summit five elliptical, glaucous, unequal leafets, 

 on partial petioles, particularly the largest, and those adjoining it. 

 Raceme terminal, deflected, about 12-flowered ; bractece large, obovate, 

 the lowest rotundato-reniform, pedicels spreading, single-flowered, twice 

 the length of the bracteae, farther elongated and cernuous when bearing 

 the fruit. Flowers yellow. Calyx of six spreading elliptical leafets. Pe- 

 tals 6, yellow, opposite to the leafets of the calyx, erect, semicylindri- 

 cal, truncated, bi-aristate at the apex, about half the length of the ca- 

 lyx. Stamens 6, yellow, opposite to the petals, and longer than them ; 

 anthers bilocular, opening by the sides folding upwards to the apex, 

 where they adhere to the connective. Stigma small, simple. Style short, 

 angular. Germen inflated, membranous, unilocular. Ovules four, ob- 

 ovate, green, erect from the base of the germen, and afterwards exposed 

 by the rupture of its apex. 

 This very pretty plant was received by Mr Falconar from Mr Goldie, 

 and flowered very freely in a cold frame at Carlowrie in April. It is a 

 native of the Altai Mountains, towards the western part of which, it ap- 

 pears from Ledebour, it is most abundant, flowering early in spring, 

 while, in the eastern part, it was not observed. According to liedebour, 

 it does not differ from Leontice Odessana. 



