1917-18.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 285 



emits profusely lateral rootlets after the fashion of Lilium. 

 I do not find this in the series Oxypetala. Does this mean 

 that the bulb of Nomocharis lives in a shallower stratum of 

 the soil than does Fritillaria ? 



The Open Perianth. — The open perianth of Nomocharis 

 is one of its most striking features. The flower is as open 

 as that of Meconopsis, and there may be even a slight 

 reflexing from the base but never the recurving of Lilium. 

 la no Fritillaria is there anything quite like it. At the 

 same time, in the Oxypetala series we find the perianth not 

 showing the typical campanulate form of Fritillaria. That 

 may be a consequence of the absence of the median petaline 

 foveola. The corolla is broadly funnel-shaped or concave, 

 and in F. oxypetala is really open.^ The character cannot 

 be regarded as one defining Nomocharis in Franchet's 

 sense. It appears in some other divergent forms collected 

 by Forrest, Nos. 493, 10,620, and by Ward, No. 801, on 

 the Burmo-Chinese frontier to fix the generic position 

 which has led to my making this incursion into the field 

 of Lilium and Fritillaria. 



Dissimilarity of Sepaline and Petaline Segments. — In 

 N. pardanthina, upon which Franchet founded Nomocharis, 

 the contrast in form between sepals and petals is remark- 

 able. The spotted petals are broad, nearl}?- orbicular, with 

 a,n abruptl)' acuminate tip, and the midrib is a relatively 

 broad prominent ridge. The margin in about the upper 

 half is more or less fringed, and the acuminate tip has a 

 series of marginal outgrowths miniature of the fringe- 

 segments of the broader part of the petal. As they lie in 

 the expanded open flower they are cochlear imbricate and 

 conceal the sepals save where the sepaline tips show in the 

 corolline sinuses. The unspotted sepals, on the other hand, 

 are ovate acute rather than acuminate, about the same 

 length but only a little more than half as broad, and 

 whilst they have the same reduced marginal outgrowths 

 along their tips, want entirely the fringe of the margin 

 of the broader portion. 



The same contrast appears in N. leucantJia and N. Mairei. 

 But in lY. ineleagrina the petals and sepals are said to be 

 all alike spotted, ovate-lanceolate, equally long and broad, 

 1 See Bot. Mag. (1853), t. 4731, and Elwes, Monogr. Lil. (1880), t. 5. 



