BRIEFER ARTICLES. 



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A NEW WESTERN CAMASSIA. 



In 1880 Mr. William N. Suksdorf collected in Falcon valley, Wash- 

 ington, specimens of Camassia, which were sent to the Gray Herba- 

 rium for identification. One of these specimens was correctly referred 

 by the late Sereno Watson to Camassia escuhnta Lindl.; the other, an 

 incomplete specimen, and a duplicate collected in 1883, were referred 

 to C, Leichtlinii Watson. Since that time the same collector has care- 

 fully watched the growth of these plants in the field, and has even 

 brought several species of the genus into garden cultivation for the 

 purpose of ascertaining their true systematic position and relationship. 

 Full notes and additional complete specimens have been forwarded 

 the writer by Mr. Suksdorf, together affording the satisfactory separa- 

 tion of the plant from the species with which it has been hitherto con- 

 fused, as well as from all other described species of the genus. It is 

 fitting that this new Camassia bear Mr. Suksdorf's name, and the 

 author takes great pleasure in dedicating it to him. A description is 

 herewith appended : 



'-Camassia Suksdorfii Greenman, n. sp. — Bulbs ovate, i to 2™ in 

 diameter: leaves narrowly lorate, 3"^"" or less long, 0.5 to 2*"™ broad; 

 scape 3 to 7"^"° high, few-flowered : bracts lance-attenuate, membranous, 

 mostly shorter than the elongated 1-3. 5*^" long arcuate-ascending 

 pedicels: flowers regular, blue or in the dried state somewhat violet, 

 fully 5*"™ in diameter when completely expanded ; perianth segments 

 lanceolate, 3 to 3.5"" long, about 8*°" broad, mostly 5-nerved, in the 

 later stages closing over the ovary and becoming somewhat spirally 

 twisted : cells of the ovary about T2-ovuled : capsule 1.5 to 3.5*'°' long, 

 10 to 12""* in diameter, obtwsely angled : seeds ovate, 3 to 4™"" long. — 

 Washington, in wet meadows. Falcon valley, Suksdorf, no. 251, June- 

 July 1883, and July 1880, Suksdorf, no. 509; near Bingen, altitude 

 600"°, 21 May 1900, Suksdorf, no._2663, A white-flowered form of 



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this species was collected in a wet meadow in W. Klickitat county, 

 Washington, altitude about 600™, 19 May 1891, Suksdorf, no. 2023. 

 The species here proposed is distinguished from Camassia esculenia 



1902] 307 



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