190 Dr Graham's List vfBare Plants. 



wliere else glaucous, frequently incised at the apex. Scape erect, pani- 

 culate, round, glaucous, sjiotted with brown towards the base ; branches 

 erect, subtended by obloiigo-ovate, membranous brown bracteae. Flowers 

 terminal. Calyx of six leaflets, yellowish-green, glabrous on both sides, 

 imbricated, caducous, the outer segments bright red at the edges. 

 Corolla yellow, of six spreading, obovate, rather distant petals, imbri- 

 cated in the bud, concave, slightly crisped at the apex, each with a 

 nectariferous pit at its claw, and a corresponding gibbosity on the out- 

 side. Stamens six, hypogynous, erect, opposite the petals ; filaments 

 short ; anthers longer than the filaments, curved inwards, and flattened 

 on the inner side, the lobes round and prominent on the back, and there 

 having a deep groove between them, opening by the rolling up of late- 

 ral valves, connective blunt and projecting beyond the anther lobes ; 

 pollen pale orange, granules small, elliptical. Pistil rather longer than 

 the stamens, nearly half as long as the petals ; style adherent to the 

 germen from the base to the apex of this, and almost immediately on 

 becoming free it is dilated and plicate ; stigma marginal ; germen green, 

 membranous, inflated, 1 -celled, ovate, compressed, having many narrow 

 vertical membranous wings. Ovules several (about 9), erect, stipitate, 

 arising from the base of the cell. 

 This very curious and interesting plant, so much resembling Leontice, yet 

 so easily distinguished from it by the generic character quoted above 

 (and for the transcript of which I am indebted to Sir William Hooker, 

 not being able at the time to see the work in which it is published), 

 flowered in the greenhouse of Dr Neill, Canoumills, Edinburgh, in the 

 middle of April last. A tuber was received by him from Dr Fischer, 

 St Petcrsburgh, three years ago ; which, when planted on the surfixce, 

 shewed only leaves ; but on being immersed two inches in the soil, 

 threw up a flower-stem. It is said by Meyer to abound in the hills, 

 plains, and fields to the westward of the Caspian, and that the tubers, 

 either roasted or boiled, are eaten by the Persians. Linnaeus and sub- 

 sequent writers tell us that it grows in corn-fields in Greece, and 

 Sprengel and Schultes add Syria and Asia Minor. I am indebted to 

 Professor Don for the reference to Hortus Kewensis, which I had over- 

 looked. It appears from this that the plant was in cultivation in this 

 country a hundred years ago, but it had certainly been lost, till now 

 again introduced by Dr Fischer. " The plant found by Olivier in the 

 island of Scio, Meyer considers a distinct species, which lie calls B. Oli- 

 Tieri ; and lie supposes it to be what De Candolle (Syst. ii. 24.) has de- 

 scribed as Leontice chrysogonum." — Don, MS. It does not seem unlikely 

 that the plant in all the European stations may belong to this species, 

 and that it may be distinguished from the plant on the shores of the 

 Caspian by the much greater length of its filaments. 



Epimedium Musschianum. 



E. Musscli'unium ; foliis ternatis ; floribus squalide albidis, petalis ca- 

 lycem superantibus ; stylo filiformi subcentrale, stiginate sublobato. 

 Epimedium Musschianum, Morren et Decalsne, Ann. Sc. Nat. 2de serie, 

 torn. ii. p. 3.53. 

 Deschiption. — Petioles subei'ect, trifid, swollen at the point of subdivi- 

 sion, as well as its branches round ; barren ones (in the specimen de- 

 scribed) glabrous and naked at the base, their subdivisions nionophyl- 

 lous, half as long as the petiole, leaflets cordate, glabrous, 7-nerved, 

 bright green above, subglaucous below ; Jloicer-hearing ones twice as long 

 SIS the others, sheathed at the base by several equitant, inflated, gla- 

 brous, coloured, 3-nerved stipules, loosely clothed with spreading tomen- 

 tuni, most abundant at its subdivision and at the origin of the jianicle, 

 branches unequal, the central the longest, but less than half as long as 

 the petiole, 3-foliolate ; leaflets very hairy on the lower side, at least 

 when young. Peduncle (2^ inches long) arising from the petiole (about 

 an inch) below its subdivision, rather less hairy than the petiole or its 



