GENERA CONFUSED UNDER BRODI.EA. 125 



STUDIES IN THE BOTANY OF CALIFORNIA AND PARTS 

 ADJACENT, 



BY EDWARD LEE GREENE. 



V. 



(With Plate VI.) 



1. Some Genera ivJiicJi have been Confused under the Name 

 Broclicea. 



Of the species herein to be discussed, only five or six are 

 presumed to be new. Many of them have long been known, 

 and most of them have been collectively elaborated by at 

 least two eminent botanists within a few years. There has 

 been the widest diversity of opinion among authors regard- 

 ing the limits of the genera, and the entire group is confes- 

 sedly a perplexing one. Before so many as twenty species 

 had become known, no less than thirteen genera had been 

 either established for, or more or less replenished with 

 them; but in the most recent pronouncement/ the bulk of 

 the species, embracing at least three very good genera, as 

 we understand them , are all disposed under Brodicea. From , 

 the earliest days of my residence on this coast, where these 

 plants are indigenous, I have regarded the arrangement 

 placed before students and amateurs in the Botany of Cali- 

 fornia, as most unnatural; and having now given five succes- 

 sive seasons to the study of the commonest species under 

 circumstances peculiarly favorable to the forming of a sound 

 and rational judgment upon them, I am now ready to offer 

 the result of my investigations. 



The Liliaccce as an order are poor subjects for herbarium 

 study. The fabric of their flowers is delicate, being made 

 up of a maximum of water and a minimum of permanent 



Note ^ — Botauy of California, Vol. ii, by Sereno Watson, pp. 152-157. 

 10— Bull. Cal. Acad. Sci. II. 6. Issued November 13, 1886. 



