182 LILIACE^E. Vemtrum. 



27. VERATRUM, Tourn. FALSE HELLEBORE. 



Flowers polygamous, mostly cream-color or greenish ; segments distinct, spread- 

 ing, persistent, oblong-obovate or oblanceolate, several-nerved, glandless or with a 

 thickened greenish margin toward the base or somewhat biglandular, slightly adnate 

 to the base of the ovary. Stamens free ; filaments subulate ; anthers cordate, con- 

 fluently 1 -celled, peltate after opening. Ovary sessile; styles distinct, stigmatic at 

 the apex. Capsule membranous, 3-beaked by the persistent divergent styles, septi- 

 cidal to the base. Seeds several in each cell, ascending, oblong-lanceolate, com- 

 pressed and margined or winged, with close thin whitish testa. Stem stout, tall 

 and leafy, from a short thick rhizome, bearing a pubescent panicle mostly staminate 

 below, with green or greenish bracts ; pedicels short and stout, not jointed ; leaves 

 ovate to lanceolate, sheathing, strongly nerved and plaited. 



A genus of nine species, of which four are European and Asiatic and three belong to the 

 Atlantic States. The roots are poisonous, and those of several species are employed in medicine. 



* Perianth-segments entire or serrulate, thickened laterally at base, very shortly 



adnate to the oblong-ovate many-seeded membranous capsule. 



1. V. Californicum, Durand. Stem very stout, 3 to 7 feet high : leaves ovate, 

 acute, the upper narrowing to lanceolate, 4 to 1 2 inches long, all sheathing, some- 

 what pubescent or nearly glabrous : inflorescence and upper part of stem tomentose- 

 pubescent ; branches of the panicle (a foot or two long) mostly simple and ascend- 

 ing, sometimes compound and more spreading, the lower usually sterile ; bracts 

 ovate-lanceolate, somewhat inembranaceous, usually exceeding the pedicels (| to 2| 

 lines long) : segments of the perianth oblanceolate, obtuse, whitish, with a greener 

 base, thickened and brown at the sides, the upper margin often somewhat denticu- 

 late irregularly, 3 to 8 lines long : stamens 3 to 5 lines long : capsule an inch long 

 or more : seeds 12 to 15 in each cell, whitish, broadly winged, 5 or 6 lines long. 

 Journ. Philad. Acad. iii. 103. V. album, Watson, Bot. King Exp. 344. 



Frequent in the Sierra Nevada and in the Coast Ranges of Mendocino County, and northward 

 to the Columbia ; also in the East Humboldt Mountains, Nevada, and the Wahsatch (Watson), 

 Mount Graham, Arizona (Rothrock), and the Rocky Mountains from Wyoming to New Mexico. 

 It appears to differ from all the Old World forms of V. album, especially in the darker thickened 

 bases of the more adnate perianth-segments, its larger capsules, and more numerous seeds. 



V. VIRIDE, Ait., of the Eastern States, also occurs in the mountains of Oregon and northward. 

 Its flowers are green, in a more slender panicle with more or less drooping branches, the segments 

 more narrowly oblanceolate, and stamens shorter. The upper leaves are more acuminate, and the 

 bracts more foliaceous, usually longer and narrower. 



* * Perianth-segments fimbriate, the ridged base divided by a narrow longitudi- 

 nal snlcus, slightly adnate to the subglobose obtusely lobed thin-membranous 

 capsule. 



2. V. fimbriatum, Gray. Stem 2 to 5 feet high or more : leaves lanceolate, 6 

 to 18 inches long and 2 to 6 inches wide, acute or acuminate, narrowed to the base, 

 somewhat pubescent : panicle tomentose, spreading ; bracts ovate to ovate-lanceolate ; 

 pedicels stout, 2 to 5 lines long : perianth-segments rhombic-ovate, greenish white (1), 

 3 to 5 lines long, irregularly fimbriate from above the broad base, which is marked 

 by two oblong subglandular spots separated by a narrow furrow and reaching to the 

 middle of the segment : filaments stout, 2 lines long : styles long and slender : cap- 

 sule depressed and somewhat emarginate at the apex, 4 lines long ; cells 5 7-ovuled, 

 2 - 4-seeded : seeds nearly 3 lines long, oblong, scarcely margined. Proc. Arner. 

 Acad. vii. 391. 



Frequent on the plains west of the Redwoods in Mendocino County, Bolander, Kellogg & Hnr- 

 ford (n. 1027). A very peculiar species. 



