ANDROSTEPHIUM VIOLACEUM. 

 CROWNED LILY. 



NATURAL ORDER, LILIACE^. 



ANDROSTEPHIUM VIOLACEUM, Torrey. — Bulb globose, tunicated, eight to nine lines thick, exter- 

 nal membrane separate from the interior. Leaves four to six, appearing with the flowers, 

 six to eight inches long, scarcely more than half a line wide. Scape two to four inches 

 long. Spathe of three or four lanceolate, membranaceous pieces. Umbel three to four flow- 

 ered, pedicels six to twelve lines long. Perianth violet, ten to twelve lines long. Crown 

 three lines long. Style five to six lines long, drawn up above the crown. Segments two to 

 two and a half lines long. (Baker in xi. vol. of the younial of the Linuiran Society of 

 London. See also Botany of the I\Iexican Boundary Commission.) 



IFTER the war which occurred between Mexico and the 

 United States, about the middle of the present century, 

 large tracts of Mexican territory were ceded to the United 

 States, by which its lines were very much extended. It became 

 necessary to have a clear understanding as to the exact boun- 

 daries between the two countries, so a commission was agreed 

 upon, by which officers from each should together make a 

 survey. On the part of the United States, Lieutenant \V. H. 

 Emory was placed in charge of the party, receiving his commis- 

 sion from the President in 1854. Competent assistants in the 

 various branches of science were appointed, and full collections 

 of objects of Natural History made ; and the results of their 

 labors are known in literature as the "Reports of the Mexican 

 Boundary Survey." The Botany of the expedition was worked 

 up by Dr. Torrey, and it was here that he first described the 

 genus Androsicp/mmi as now understood, the name being evi- 

 dently derived from two Greek words referring to the crown-like 



arrangement of the stamens, so conspicuous in the centre of the 



(160) 



