173 



In woods and fields, North Carolina to Tennessee, south to 

 Florida and Alabama. April and May. Ascends to 950 metres 

 in North Carolina. Irillium sessile and Trillhun Undetwoodii are 

 remarkably constant in comparative size. The two species can 

 readily be segregated on size and habit alone and of course com- 

 parative measurements of organs would serve as an excellent basis 

 of separation. But this is not necessary since we have such 

 good specific characters as exist in the flower, especially as re- 

 spects the stamens and styles. 



4. Trillium viride Beck, Am. Jour. Sci. 11:178. 1826. 



'Irillium viridescens Nutt. Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. (II.) 5:155. 



1837. 



Trdliiun sessile var. Ntittallii S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 14 : 273. 



1879. 



Perennial by ashort corm-like rootstock, bright green, more or 

 less pubescent. Stems solitary, or several together, 1-4 dm. tall, 

 purple, rough-pubescentatleast near the top; leaves oblong, ovate, 

 or broadly ovate, 5-11 cm. long, acute or obtusish, 3-5-nerved, 

 usually blotched, more or less pubescent on the nerves beneath, 

 abruptly short-attenuate at the base ; flowers sessile ; sepals linear 

 or linear-lanceolate, 2.5-5 cm. long, bright green, acute or obtuse, 

 erect or spreading ; petals clawed, the blades linear or nearly so, 

 2.5-6 cm. long, surpassing the sepals, light green or purplish green, 

 acute or obtuse, on brown or purple claws; stamens about ^ as long 

 as the petals; filaments flattened, ^^-^ shorter than the anthers; 

 berry not seen. 



In woods and glades, Missouri to Tennessee, south to Missis- 

 sippi and Arkansas. April and May. 



Prof. Beck published a good description of this species in the 

 year 1826. Mr. Nuttall described an apparently extreme form 

 of the same species eleven years later. With these two full de- 

 scriptions and the original specimens of Mr. Nuttall extant, it 

 seems strange that Trillium viride Beck, and Trillium viridescens 

 Nutt., being one and the same species, should, on the one hand, 

 be made a synonym and on the other a variety of a species to 

 which it is only distantly related ; the clawed petals, among many 

 other characters, primarily prevent it being associated with Tril- 

 lium sessile. Its true relationship is with Trillium recutvatum. 



Mr. Nuttall collected the original specimens of Trillium viri- 



