372 



MELANTHACEAE 



1. TOFIELDIA Huds. Fl. Angl. ed. 2, 157. 1778. 



Perennial herbs, with short erect or horizontal rootstocks, and slender erect stems, leaf- 

 less above or nearly so. Leaves linear, somewhat 2-ranked and equitant, clustered at the 

 base. Plowers small, green or white, in a close terminal centrifugal panicle or raceme. 

 Pedicels bracted at base, solitary or clustered. Perianth-segments oblong or obovate, sul> 

 equal, persistent, glandless, subtended by 3 scarious somewhat united bractlets. Stamens 6; 

 filaments filiform; anthers ovate sometimes cordate, marginally dehiscent. Ovary sessile, 

 3-lobed at the summit; styles 3, short, recurved. Capsule 3-lobed, 3-beaked. septicidally de- 

 hiscent to the base, many-seeded. Seeds unappendaged or with tail-like appendages. [Name 

 in honor of Air. Tofield, an English correspondent of Hudson.] 



A genus of 12 species, native of the North Temperate Zone, also the Andes of South America. Type 

 species, Tofieldia paltistris Huds. 



1. Tofieldia occidentalis S. A\'ats. 

 Western Tofieldia. Fig. 912. 



Tofieldia occidentalis S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 14: 283. 

 1879. 



Stems viscid with short-stalked or nearly ses- 

 sile blackish glands, 2-6 dm. high, scape-like with 

 2-4 leaves toward the base. Basal leaves narrowly 

 linear, mostly 8-20 cm. long and 3-4 mm. wide, 

 acute or obtuse; inflorescence a narrow panicle 

 or raceme, pedicels becoming 6-10 mm. long, 

 commonly clustered in 3's ; perianth light yellow, 

 the outer segments narrowly obovate, 4-5 mm. 

 long, the inner slightly narrower and longer : 

 capsule 5-7 mm. long, tipped with the slender 

 recurved styles; seeds 6-8 in each cell, angular- 

 ovate, with a very loose spongy white testa and 

 a slender appendage at the outer end about equal- 

 ling the seed. 



About cool springs and mountain meadows. Transition and Canadian Zones; southern Alaska to Mendocino 

 County, and the southern Sierra Nevada, California. Type locality: near cold springs, Red Mountain, Men- 

 docino County, California. 



2. ABAMA Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 47, 511. 1763. 



[N.ARTHECiUM Juss. Gen. 47. 1789.] 



Perennial herbs, with creeping rootstocks, fibrous roots, erect simple slender stems, and 

 linear grass-like equitant basal leaves, those of the stem short and distant. Flowers in a 

 terminal raceme, small, greenish yellow, perfect. Pedicels bracted at base and with or 

 without a small bractlet. Perianth-segments persistent, linear or linear-lanceolate, obscurely 

 3-5-nerved, glandless. Stamens 6; filaments subulate, woolly; anthers linear-oblong, erect, 

 introrse. Ovary sessile ; style very short 'or none ; stigma slightly 3-lobed. Capsule oblong, 

 loculicidally dehiscent, many-seeded. Seeds linear, ascending from near the base, with a 

 long bristle-like tail at each end. [Greek, ineaning without step, the plant reputed to cause 

 lameness in cattle.] 



A genus of four closely allied species, the others in the Atlantic States, Europe, and eastern Asia, 

 respectively. Type species, Anthericnm ossifragum L. 



