182 LILIACE^. Veratrum. 



27. VERATRUM, Tourn. False Helleboiik. 



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

 ing, pei-sistent, oblong-obovate or oblanceolate, several-nerved, glandless or witli 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 tlie 

 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 



(idnate to the ohlong-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 membranaceous, usually exceeding the pedicels (| to 2| 

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

 base, thiclcened 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. F. album, Watson, Bot. King Exp. 344. 



Freijuent in the Sierra Nevada and in the Coast Ranges of Mendocino County, and noitlnvard 

 to the Columbia ; also in the East Humboldt Mountains, Nevada, and the Wahsatch {IFu/son), 

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

 It appears to diifer from all the Old World forms of F. album, esjiecially in the darker thickened 

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



V. viuiDE, 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 arc more acuminate, and tiie 

 bracts more foliaceous, usually longer and narrower. 



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

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

 capsule. 



2. y. 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 (?), 

 3 to 5 lines long, irregularly flmbriate 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. Amer. 

 Acad. vii. 391. o 6' J o 



fori 



Frequent on the plains west of the Redwoods in Mendocino County, Bolander, Kelloqn k Har- 

 rd (n. 1027). A veiv i)eculiar species. 



species. 



