THDNOGRAPII OF THE GENUS XIPHION. 9 



the Exchange specimens of Dr. Boswell-Syme seem to fix the names 

 differently, as far as one can judge from dried specimens only. Note also, 

 that the Cheshire Bartaia is more a plant of the roadsides than of the 

 cornfields. 



Chenopodinm paganum, Eeich., and C. viride, L. (p. 553.) — Add pro- 

 vince 9 for both, Knutsford. 



"■Polygonum nodosum," (p. 555.) — Mere Mere Edge, Cheshire. A 

 small, white-flowered semi-procumbent form, so named by an authority 

 in whom much reliance may be placed. It bears a few glands. This is 

 a very different state to the large, erect, dusky purple "nodosum" of our 

 suburbs. 



P. (aviculare) rurivagiim, .lord. — Cornfields, common. P. (avicidare) 

 arewflsifz-MOT, Bor. (p. 556). Roadsides; common. Both plentifnl round 

 Knutsford. 



Popidiis (tremula) glabra, E. B. (p. 560.) — If you cut down a hedge 

 of Aspens, the shoots froui the stoops, for the first year or two, bear leaves 

 more like those of the black Poplar, and which you would never take for 

 Aspen leaves if you had only an herbarium acquaintance with this tree. 

 These leaves of the young rods are silky beneath. As tlie wood strength- 

 ens and regains its tree size, the leaves become glabrous and assume the 

 ordinary Aspen sbape. 



Carex " involiita" (p. 591). — I have gathered from several places in 

 Pickmere, Tabley, and near Knutsford, specimens to me identical with 

 those distributed by the Exchange Club under this name. A Carex which 

 is neither auipullacea nor vesicaria (though to me much nearer the former), 

 will, I fancy, prove to have wide, though perhaps nowhere abundant, 

 comital distribution in Cliester. 



MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS XIPHION. 

 By J. G. Baker, F.L.S. 



In the present paper I propose to attempt to characterize and classify 

 a small group of Iridaceoi inhabiting the Mediterranean region, Orient, 

 and Abyssinia, the published information respecting ivhich is very much 

 scattered, and when brought together needs a considerable amount of 

 sifting and addition in order to make it accurate and complete. The 

 species are several of them old garden favourites, the synonymy of whicli 

 might be traced back to Clusius, Parkinson, Besler, and the Bauhins. 

 The group, taking it as a whole, scarcely differs from Iris except in the 

 character of the rootstock, which in Xiphion is a bulb and in Iris a 

 rhizome. Although in floral characters the two come so near to one 

 another, yet, in making a key to the genera of this Order and its neigh- 

 bours, it is so convenient to use the character of the rootstock as one of 

 high importance, that I prefer in this matter to follow the example of 

 Tournefort and Miller to thnt of Linnaeus, and to treat the two genera as 

 distinct. It will be seen from the synonymy that in the matter of generic 

 circumscription the views which have been taken by later authors are 

 extremely diverse, and that Xiphion, as here defined, includes three of the 

 genera of the most recent monographer of the Order. 



Defmition. — Pcrianthium coroUinum, supcrum, tubo supra ovarium sub- 



