I 



I 



J 



4 



r 



BOTANY. 



219 



n stylus filiformis, stamina a}qnans ; stigma capitato-trilobura. Capsula late-obovata, truncata, 



/] 3-lol)a, lobis compressis. Semina in loculis 8-14, verticalia, compresa, biseriata; nigra. Herba 



bulboso-tuberosa. Folia omnia radicalia, linearia, semi-cylindrica. Florea in apice scapi 

 umbellati, pedicellati, violacei, bracteis 3-4 involucrati ; pedicellis inarticulatis. 



"^ANDROSTEPniuM VIOLACEUM, — Hills and prairies on the rivers Blanco and Colorado^ Texas, 

 Marcb ; Wright. We have excellent specimens from Dr. B. Gleason, United States army, 

 collected near Fort Arbuckle; and it occurs in Lindheimer's Texan collection fasc. IV. Leaves 

 6-8 inches long and 1-2 lines wide, arising from a small coated bulb which surmounts a depressed 

 globose bulb or corm. Scape about as long as the leaves, rather stout, bearing at the summit 

 an umbel of 2-7 flowers, which have a faint sweet odor. Bracts scarious, lanceolate, acuminate, 

 3-nerved. Pedicels rather shorter than the flower. Perianth nearly an inch long, 6-cleft nearly 

 to the middle^ the segments more or less spreading^ oblong, obtuse. Stamens 6, the free portion 

 of the filaments united into a tube which arises from the orifice of the perianth is conspicuously 

 »\ exserted, and produced between and beyond the anthers into a crown of 6 oblong emarginate 



lobes. Anthers linear-oblong, notched at each end. Style about as long as the stamens. Ovary 

 entirely free from the base of the perianth. Capsule sessile, with 3 very prominent laterally 

 compressed lobes or cells, which open loculicidally. Seed suborbicular, laterally much com- 

 pressed and narrowly winged, vertically imbricated in a double series. Embryo slender, 

 cylindrical, a little curved in the axis of fleshy albumen. The Mexican genus Bessera most 

 resembles this, but it difi'ers in the very short tube of the perianth, in the tube of filaments having 



only a short tooth between the filaments, and in the form of the capsule. 



MiLLA BiFLORA, Cav. Ic. 2, p. 76, f. 196, ex Kuntli^ Enum. 4, p. 478. M. cierulea, Scheele in 

 Linncea, 25, p. 260. On the Rio San Pedro^ Sonora ; ScJiott^ Thurher. No, 1913, Wright. 

 Scape 1-3-flowered. Bulb subglobose, clothed with light brown scales. Our plant wholly 



Mexican 



Kunili, Enum. 4, ». 627. Yar.? angustifolia : foliis 2-4 lin. 



latis, pedicellis infra medium articulatis; ovarii loculis sub-16-ovulatis. Copper M 



Me 



August; Bigelow; 



(No. 69 and 1912, Wright.) Cretaceous hills and ravines near the Pecos; Scliott. Monterey, 

 Mexico ; Dr. Edwards. New Mexico, Fendler^ No. 851. Root a fascicle of thick fleshy fibres. 

 Leaves usually less than 3 lines wide. Stem scapiform, 1^-3 feet long, very slender, often nearly 

 simple above, but more commonly somewhat paniculately branched^ the branches erect. Flowers 

 2-4 or more together in fascicles ; the terminal ones racemose and mostly solitary. Pedicels 



F 



jointed about one-third their length from the base. The expanded perianth about three-fourths 

 of an inch in diameter, orange-yellow; segments narrowly oblong, with closely approximated 

 nerves along the middle. Stamens scarcely half the length of the perianth ; filaments roughened 

 with short, obtuse^ somewhat retorse teeth; anthers linear-oblong. Ovary obovate, the cells 

 with about 16 anatropous ovules in a double series; style one-third longer than the stamens, 

 filiform ; stigma minutely 3-lobed, ciliolate-papillose. Capsule oblong-obovate, obtuse, 3-lobed, 

 thin. Seeds angular, black. E. terniflora differs from our plant in the leaves being 6-Y lines 

 wide, the pedicels jointed in the middle and the more numerous ovules (23-24 in each cell of 

 the ovary.) 



