246 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



XXI. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES OF PLANTS, WITH RE- 

 VISIONS OF CERTAIN GENERA. 



By Sereno Watson. 



Presented May 25, 1877. 



Theltpodium Cooperi. Annual, erect or ascending, glabrous 

 and glaucous, a foot high or more, rather lax and slender, sparingly 

 branched : leaves oblong-lanceolate, an inch or two long, sessile, and 

 cordate or auricled at base, acutish, entire : flowers on very short 

 spreading or soon reflexed pedicels; sepals narrow, 1^- or 2 lines long, 

 the narrow purplish petals a half longer: stamens included; anthers 

 short: pods reflexed, 1 to 1^ inches long, subterete, beaked, on 

 pedicels a line or two long. — Collected by Dr. J. G. Cooper near 

 Fort Mohave in 1861, and referred to in Bot. Calif, i. 38; more com- 

 plete specimens, gathered by Dr. Edward Palmer last season on the 

 Mohave River, have been distributed under the above name. 



LYCHNIS, Linn. The American species of this genus (conven- 

 iently retained as distinguished from Silene by the increased number 

 of styles and carpels, though otherwise not to be separated from it) 

 are more numerous than has been supposed. So far as known they 

 may be arranged as follows: — 



* Calyx clavate-oblong : capsule incompletely septate, 5-toothed. 



1. L. ALPiNA, Linn. Biennial or perennial, glabrous, slender, 2 to 

 10 inches high : leaves linear-oblanceolate : bracts somewhat mem- 

 branous : flowers small, in capitate cymes : petals exserted, 4 or 5 

 lines long, 2-lobed : capsule shortly stipitate. — Greenland to Labra- 

 dor. (Eui-ope, Asia.) 



* * Calyx more or less inflated : capsule not septate, 5-10-toothed : peren- 

 nials. 



-(- Dwarf and cespitose, alpine or arctic : stems 1-flowered : seeds with a 

 loose membranous margin : capsule very shortly stipitate. 



