64 ERYTHEA. 



bolclt County, Korbel, 1896; Hyarapum, Trinity County, Blasdale, 

 August, 1896; Seattle, Washington, Piper, 1892. 



Early in May, 1896, some exceptionally fine specimens of the 

 tubers and flowering spikes were received through Prof. E. W. 

 Hilgard at the Department of Botany of the University of Cali- 

 fornia from Sonoma County. Mr. Adolph H. Weber, who sent the 

 specimens, reported that they were taken from roots of the Madrone, 

 Arbutus Menziesii. While these plants were evidently to be referred 

 to BoschniaJcia strobilacea, the material differed in several notable 

 particulars with the generic and specific diagnoses as given in the 

 Botany of California and the Synoptical Flora, and exhibited some 

 interesting variations. The descriptions in the above works were 

 found by the writer to correspond, however, with the type specimen 

 and the early material preserved in the Gray Herbarium on which 

 the diagnoses were based, and it is to be noted that nearly all the 

 material received from time to time at the Gray Herbarium has 

 called for some change in, or necessitated an addition to, some fea- 

 ture of the generic or specific diagnosis. 



The "tubers" or globose growths which form the attachment of 

 the parasite to the root of the host are shown in Plate No. 1. They 

 differ much in size. The earliest stage in Mr. Weber's material is 

 f of an inch in diameter, and this is the earliest known to us. The 

 "tubers" bearing spikes vary in size from IJ to 3f inches in diame- 

 ter. Internally the texture is quite fleshy, the outside being firmer 

 and more or less tessellated. They produce one or more short 

 caudices, which bear a single spike or are branched and bear two, 

 three or even four spikes. The largest tuber, as shown in the illus- 

 tration just cited, bears four spikes. Plate No. 2 shows a small 

 secondary spike at the base of the large one. 



The flowering shoots borne by the tubers vary also considerably 

 in size. Two of Mr. Weber's plants measure respectively 8^ and 

 9 inches in length and at the thickest portion the spike was 2^ 

 inches in diameter. One specimen of Mr. Blasdale's, the largest 

 which the writer has seen, was fourteen inches in length. Usually, 

 however, the plants are rather smaller and are frequently only three 

 to four inches in length. But more interesting than mere varia- 

 tions in size are the differences in the floriferous portion of the 



