BUNCH-FLOWER FAMILY 



379 



4. Veratrum fimbriatum A. Gray. Fringed False Hellebore. Fig. 927. 



Veratnim fimbriatum A. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 7: 391. 

 1868. 



Stems 1-2 m. tall. Leaves lanceolate, acute 

 or acuminate, narrowed to the base, 2-5 dm. long, 

 sparsely and inconspicuoush- pubescent; inflores- 

 cence densely tomentose, usually 3-5 dm. long, 

 the branches spreading, simple or the lowest 

 sometimes branched ; bracts ovate to ovate lan- 

 ceolate shorter than the pedicels ; pedicels di- 

 vergent, stout, 6-12 mm. long ; perianth-segments 

 rhombic-ovate, 6-10 mm. long, irregularly fimbri- 

 ate to near the broad base, with 2 oblong sub- 

 glandular spots extending from the base to the 

 middle of the segment and separated by a nar- 

 row furrow; stamens 4 mm. long; styles slender: 

 capsule obovate, depressed and somewhat 

 emarginate at the apex, 8 mm. long ; seeds 5-7 

 in each cavity, 6 mm. long, scarcely margined. 



Frequent in wet meadows. Humid Transition Zone; 

 along the coast of northern Sonoma and ^lendocino Coun- 

 ties, California. Type locality: plains west of the red- 

 wood belt in Mendocino County. 



5. Veratrum insolitum Jepson. 

 Siskiyou False Hellebore. Fio". 927. 



Veratrum insolitum Jepson, Fl. Calif. 1: 266. 1921. 



Stems 1-1.5 m. high. Leaves 15-20 cm. long, 

 elliptic or the uppermost lanceolate ; panicle 30- 

 50 cm. long, lanate-tomentose ; perianth-segments 

 6-8 mm long, white, obovate, irregularly ciliate 

 or erose, or the inner shallowly fimbriate ; ovary 

 densely wholly. 



Usually in thickets, Humid Transition Zone; Illinois 

 River, southwestern Oregon to Del Norte County, Cali- 

 fornia. Type locality: Adams Station to Shelly Creek, 

 California. 



Family 18. LILIACEAE. 

 Lily Family. 



Scapose or leafy-stemmed herbs from bulbs, corms, or rarely with rootstocks, 

 or sometimes with a woody caudex and arboreal, the leaves various. Flowers 

 solitary or clustered, regular and mostly perfect. Perianth of 6 separate or nearly 

 separate segments, or these more or less united into a tube. Stamens 6, hypogyn- 

 ous, or borne on the perianth ; anthers 2-celled. introrse. or sometimes extrorse. 

 Ovary superior, 3-celled ; ovules few or numerous in each cavity, anatropous or 

 amphitropous ; styles united ; stigma 3-lobed or capitate. Fruit a loculicidal 

 (septicidal in Calochortns) capsule. Embryo in copious endosperm. 



About 120 genera and 1250 species, widely distributed. 



