Dodecatheon. PRIMULACE.E. 57 



1. H0TT6NIA, L. Featherfoil. (In memory of Prof. Peter Hotton of 

 Leyden.) — Rooting, often floating, glabrous, branching, with air-bearing fistulous 

 stems and peduncles. Sepals linear. Corolla white. Filaments short. Stigma 

 capitate. Capsule membranaceous. Flowers dimorphous in the manner of 

 Primula in the European species, the earlier cleistogamous in the following. 



H. inJBlata, Ell. Leafy stems and especially the internodes of the emersed flowering ones 

 or peduncles much inflated (the latter often as thick as fingers) : proper leaves dissected 

 , into long and numerous filiform divisions ; whorled bracts linear or spatulate, entire, a 

 quarter incli long, mostly exceeding the pedicels : corolla only a line or two long, with 

 short lobes as well as tube, not equalling the calyx ; the throat open : style short. — Sk. 

 i. 231 ; Nutt. Gen. i. 120. H. palustris, Pursh, &c., not L. — Shallow water, Massachusetts 

 to Louisiana : fl. summer. 



2. DODECATHEON, L. Shooting Star, Amer. Cowslip. (Fan- 

 ciful name, from Sco'fisxa and Oeoi., twelve gods ; the specific name of the original 

 and, as we suppose, the only species commemorates Dr. Richard Mead, and was 

 given as generic by Catesby.) — Flowers, few or numerous in an umbel, termi- 

 nating a naked scape, in late spring or summer, handsome, resembling the solitary 

 flower of Cyclame7i: corolla from pink-purple to white. Calyx erect in fruit, 

 enclosing the lower part of the ovoid or fusiform crustaceous capsule. 



D. Meadia, L. Perennial herb, with fibrous roots: leaves crowded on a thickish crown, 

 generally spatulate-oblong or oblanceolate and entire or nearly so, sometimes repand, 

 obtuse, below tapering into more or less of a margined petiole, in the typical or Atlantic 

 form 3 to 9 inches long ; while the scape is from a span to 2 feet higli ; and the flowers 

 from few to many in the umbel : bracts of the involucre linear or subulate, small : pedicels 

 slender and nodding with the flowers, erect in fruit. (Flower rarely 4-merous.) — ilfeacfta, 

 Catesb. Car. iii. t. 1 ; Ehret, PI. Sel. t. 12. D. Meadia & D. integrifoUum, Michx. Fl. i. 123. 

 D. integrifoUiun, Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 3622. Dianthus Car oUnianus, Walt. Car. 140. —The 

 Atlantic plant, in moist and sliaded grounds, Michigan and Penn., and through the upper 

 country to Georgia, thence to Arkansas and Texas. Westward the species extends to 

 California and Behring Straits, under very various forms and varieties, which may be 

 generally classified as follows (after Bot. Calif, i. 467) ; the Pacific forms generally having 

 shorter or blunter anthers than the Atlantic or typical D. Meadia, L. 



Var. brevifoliiun. Leaves from obovate or ovate to broadly spatulate, half inch to 

 an inch and a half long, abruptly contracted into a petiole ; scape 3 to 12 inches high, few- 

 many-flowered : capsule seldom exceeding the minutely glandular calyx. — D. ellipticum, 

 Nutt. ex Durand, PI. Pratt, in Jour. Acad. Philad. n. ser. ii. 95. D. integri/olium, Benth. PI. 

 Hartw. 322. — Common in W. California. Forms nearly answering to this, or larger-leaved, 

 occur in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. 



Var. lancifolium. Leaves oblanceolate or elongated-spatulate, 3 to 10 inches long, 

 the short margined petiole included, quite entire, mucronate : pedicels and calyx commonly 

 minutely glandular ; lobes of the latter lanceolate or triangular-lanceolate, nearly equalling 

 the short-ovoid cajisule. — D. Jaffrayi of the English gardens. — Wet mountain meadows 

 of California, especially in the Sierra Nevada. 



Var. alpiniini. Like diminutive forms of the preceding, with shorter as well as 

 smaller leaves (half inch to an inch and a half long) : scape 2 to 10 inches long, 1-4- 

 flowered : pedicels and calyx glabrous. — High Sierra Nevada to the Rocky Mountains. 



Var. macrocarpum. A large and stout form, emulating the conmion Atlantic 

 plant: leaves thickish (rarely laciniate-toothed), tapering gradually into a rather short 

 petiole : capsule oblong or even fusiform, 6 to 9 lines long, about double the length of the 

 narrow calyx-lobes. — W. California to Alaska. 



Var. frigidum. Leaves from obovate to oblong, very obtuse, mostly entire, an inch 

 or two in length, with short or long and slender petiole : scape a span or two high, few- 

 several-flowered : lobes of the calyx longer than the tube, from broadly lanceolate to 

 almost ovate, shorter than the oblong capsule. — Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 5871; Wats. Bot. 



