436 Key to the System of 



CAXiSXA. 



1860. Flowers blue. 



Seldom tall; tubers turgid; leaves rather broadly linear, 

 lax, mostly basal; flowers generally somewhat pendent, 

 small, irregularly compound-racemous ; stalklets two or 

 more together ; filaments often blue at the middle ; fruit 

 small, somewhat depressed ; seeds rough, black outside, 

 their appendage pale. C. vittata. 



Flowers pale. 



Tubers slender ; leaves rather narrowly linear, lax, mostly 

 basal ; flowers very small, in a scantily or hardly divided 

 raceme ; fruit quite small ; seeds black outside, their 

 appendage pale. C. parviflora. 



CHABXAESCXXiZjA. 



1861. Stem up to the inflorescence undivided. 



Leaves often shorter than the stem; inflorescence occasionally 

 reduced to two flowers or one, rarely with numerous 

 flowers ; producing rather long stalklets ; sepals and petals 

 blunt, tender, considerably longer than the stamens ; fruit 

 small, upwards broader ; seeds shining-black. 



C. corymbosa. 



COHYNOTHECA. 



1862. Ramification almost wiry and often dichotomous. 



Desert-plant ; basal leaves short, linear, fugacious ; upper 

 leaves distant, bract-like ; flowers bending downward, 

 their stalklets very short ; fruitlets very small, from ovate- 

 to clavate-ellipsoid ; seeds shining-smooth, as well as their 

 appendage black. C. lateriflora. 



BARTX.XNCXA. 



1863. Flower-headlets on much elongated terminal stalks. 



Never tall ; stem thin but rigid, branched ; leaves some- 

 what fasciculated, thinly filiform, pointed, shining, the 

 lower rather long ; leaf -stalks membranously dilated and 

 somewhat fringed ; headlets almost hemispherical, involu- 

 crated by bracts ; sepals and petals persistent, the latter 

 less shining and somewhat longer ; anthers roundish ; 

 style very short ; fruit quite small, ovate-globular, short- 

 pointed ; seeds several, angular, black outside. 



B. gracilis. 



