98 ERYTHEA. 



its appearance suggested some Ranunculaceous genus not met with 

 hitherto. A critical examination, however, aroused suspicion, and 

 it was thought that the peculiar structures might chance to be 

 abnormal. The task of recalling some West American plant that 

 would match the vegetative parts of the specimen in hand did not 

 prove to be an easy one. The scapes, the radical leaves, the cluster 

 of fibrous roots clothing the short root stock, were, however^ decidedly 

 suggestive^ and it was finally compared with Viola Beckwithii* 

 The similarity between the two plants is certainly extraordinary. 

 The plant here described as new could not match more closely in 

 habit, in every vegetative feature, the species of violet just named. 

 The leaves are divided in the same way; the petioles and scapes 

 descend below the surface of the ground to the root stock in exactly 

 the same fashion ; the fibrous roots are clustered and identical in 

 appearance. The differences are slight ; the leaves in Becfcmthia 

 Austince are glabrous, in Viola Bechvithii hispidulose ; in the 

 former the leaf bases persist as a conspicuous sheath to the bases 

 of the season's leaves and scapes. But after prolonged considera- 

 tion the possibility of our plant being a teratological specimen of 

 Viola Bechvithii was rejected. Such an hypothesis necessitated the 

 supposition, that the carpels of the gynoecium in that species had 

 not only multiplied, but that the gynoecium itself had become apo- 

 carpous ; that the sepals had not only enlarged but become regular. 



The teratological theory at first conceived, therefore, does not, at 

 the present time, seem reasonable to the writer. The material since 

 received shows no variation, nor anything to suggest a monstrosity, 

 except the fact that the structures are so unusual. 



The affinities of this genus proposed as new are not easy to deter- 

 mine. In habit and external appearance Beckwithia suggests the 

 genus Anemone, but it has no trace of the involucre, often so con- 

 spicuous in that genus and always so evident. Neither has it the 

 fruit of Anemone. Lastly, the ovule is erect from near the base of 

 the ovary and not pendulous. On the contrary, its receptacle may be 

 likened in a general way to that of Anemone, and its habit recalls 

 that of some sub-Alpine species of the latter genus. Technically it 



* Lieutenant Beckwith, of one of the Pacific Railroad transcontinental 

 exploring parties, in memory of whom this new genus of Ranunculaceae is 

 .named. 



