Sisyrinchiuvi. AMARYLLIDACE.E. j^-j 



what pubescent as also the ovary, light purple, darker below and yellow at base, 

 the segments 3-toothed or mucronatc, and shortly ciliate : stamens 3 lines long, 

 the anthers very small : stigmas scarcely exscrted : capsule depressed-globose or 

 obovoid, 2 or 3 lines long : seeds two thirds of a line in diameter, obscurely 

 pitted. — Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 277. 



From San Diego to the Columbia River, in moist places ; March to May. It resembles 

 S. anceps, Linn., of the Atlantic States, which differs in its more slender hal)it, narrower leaves, 

 smaller and usually ^dabrous flowers, and much smaller seeds. Sometimes it otM'urs with only a 

 single terminal sessile spathe, in which form it resembles S. muci:onatiim, Michx., also an 

 Eastern species, but ranging westward to beyond the Rocky Mountains, collected in N. Nevada 

 {Watson) and probably occurring in N. California. It is low and .slciidei-, always with a single 

 sessile spathe, the long-acuminate lower bract usually exceeding the smaller flowers, the segments 

 of the perianth setosely mucronate, and the cap.sule globose. 



* * Filaments united only at base; anthers linear-sagittate : scapes with a solitary 



sessile spathe. 



-t- Flowers yelloiv : style very deeply deft : scape 2-edged. 



2. S. Californicum, Ait. f. Scape broadly winged, 6 to 15 inches high, much 

 exceeding the broad leaves (2 or 3 lines Avide) : outer bracts 6 to 15 lines long, 

 more or less unequal, the longer about equalling the pedicels : flowers 3 to 7, bright 

 yellow ; segments 4 to 6 lines long, 5 - 7-nerved, obtuse or acirtish : anthers 1 ^- 

 lines long, about equalling the fllaments : style cleft below the middle, the linear 

 branches as long as the anthers : capsule obovate-oblong, 4 lines long : seeds half a 

 line in diameter. — Hort. Kew. iv. 135. Marica Calif or aica, Ker, Bot. Mag. t. 

 983. *S'. lineatiim, Torrey, Pacif. E. Rep. iv. 143. S. flavidum, Kellogg, Proc. 

 Calif. Acad. ii. 50, f. 3. S. convolutum, Klatt, Linntea, xxxiv. 735. 



Common near the coast, in wet places, from San Diego to Oregon ; Indian Valley, Plumas 

 County, Lemmon. Another yellow species (S. Arizonicmn, Rothrock) is found in the mountains 

 of Arizona, with leafy branching stems and lai'ge truncate capsules. 



■1- -I- Flowers large, purple : style cleft at the apex : scapes compressed hut not 



margined. 



3, S. grandiflorum, Dougl. Scapes rather stout, 6 to 12 inches high, exceed- 

 ing the long-sheathing leaves : spathe 1 - 4-flowered : bracts broad, very unequal, 

 the larger usually much exceeding the broadly campanulate flowers : perianth- 

 segments 6 to 10 lines long, dark reddish purple, rarely white : filaments broad at 

 base, 3 to 6 lines long, much shorter than the style ; anthers 2 lines long. — Lindl. 

 Bot. Reg. xvi. t. 1364; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 3509; Don in Sweet's Brit. Fl. Gard. 

 2 ser. t. 388. <S'. Douglasii, Dietrich. 



A showy species of N. California, ranging to British Columbia, Idaho and N. Nevada ; May, 



Order CVII. AMARYLLIDACE^. 



Ovary inferior ; otherwise like Liliacece — differing from Iridaceoe in having six 

 stamens and leaves not equitant ; its typical representatives acaulescent herbs with 

 tunicated bulbs. The only Californian genus is Agave, which with Foura^oya forms 

 the tribe Agavece, remarkably distinguished from the rest of the order by the stouter 

 often caulescent habit, the roots not bulbous, leaves thick and often spiny-tt)othed, 

 involucrate sheath none, festivation valvate, and the horizontal flattened black seeds 

 with a filiform embryo as long as the albumen. 



An order of 70 genera and nearly 500 species, of temperate and tropical regions, largely of the 

 Cape of Good Hope and South America, very sparingly represented in the United States. 



