CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE GRAY HERBARIUM OF HARVARD 

 UNIVERSITY. — NEW SERIES, NO. XXXVIII. 



JPresented by B. L. Robinson, January 12, 1910. Received February 15, 1910. 



I. A PRELIMINARY SYNOPSIS OF THE GENUS 

 ECHEANDIA. 



By C. A. Weatherby. 



The genus Echeandia, founded on Anthericum reflexum Cav., was 

 proposed by Ortega in his Novarum Plantarum Decades in 1798, and 

 has been generally maintained by botanists since. Kunth, in 1843, 

 recognized three species under it. Baker, monographing the Anther- 

 iceae in 1877, could find no clear lines of demarcation between these 

 species and referred all the material known to him to the original 

 species. Hemsley, though suspecting that more than one species was 

 concerned, retained Baker's treatment because of insufficient material 

 for a satisfactory revision. Since the date of his work, the increasingly 

 thorough floristic exploration of Mexico has revealed a number of 

 obviously distinct forms, several of which have been singly described 

 by various botanists. The genus can hardly yet be considered as 

 thoroughly understood ; but a brief synopsis, which shall contrast the 

 characters of the different species and bring together the existing 

 information concerning them, may be of service, even though it can 

 lay no claim to finality. The following is an attempt at such a 

 synopsis. 



Echeandia is, so far as known, a strictly American genus and chiefly 

 confined to Mexico and Central America. The material at hand shows 

 one species collected in Venezuela. The genus is very closely related 

 to Anthericum L., from which, indeed, it is separated by only one 

 constant character — its connate anthers. Although the American 

 species of Anthericum are more numerous than those of Echeandia, 

 the two groups show a distinctly parallel development, both con- 

 taining species with smooth and with roughened filaments, smooth 

 and scabrous stems and ovoid and oblong capsules. In particular, 

 E. macrocarpa and A. stenocarpum, and E. Pringlei and A. tenue are 

 nearly indistinguishable except by the characters of their anthers. 



