12 



Madronella viridis (Jepson) comb. nov. {MonardcUa viridis 

 Jepson, Flora W. ]\Iid. Calif. 465. 1901). A plant of western 

 California bearing Piiccinia MonardcUae Dudl. & Thomp., a dis- 

 tinctively Californian rust. 



Coleosanthus megalodontus (Greenm. ) comb. nov. (Brickcllia 

 mcgalodonta Greenm. Proc. Am. Acad. 40: 34. 1904). A Mex- 

 ican plant bearing the rust Pnccinia BrickclUae Peck. 

 Purdue University, 

 Laf.wette, Indiana 



SHORTER NOTES 



Notes on Hemerocallis, IL^A previous note (Amer. Mid. 

 Nat. 1914-15) dealt with the nomenclature, specific description, 

 and the distribution of the North American members of this. 

 genus, H. fitlva and H. flava. In 191 7, the writer conducted ex- 

 periments upon H. fitlva, obtaining results which appear to be of 

 interest if only from a negative standpoint, since the experimental 

 procedure involved seems somewhat similar to the more probable 

 physiological forces at work in the conditions under which the 

 plant forms mature seeds. 



Referring to Knuth's Handbook of Flower Pollination, we 

 read that, " according to Sprengel's assertion which Kerner con- 

 firms, the plant (H. fitlz'a) never sets fruit here, so it is highly 

 probable that in its original home in E. Asia, it is pollinated by 

 such insects as are not to be found in Europe. Maximowicz 

 states that artificial pollination is also inefifective, the flowers do 

 not produce mature seeds in Europe. Sprengel, who pollinated 

 the flowers artificially with their own pollen, also obtained no 

 fruits, etc." 



No such limitations affect H. fiava, indeed Linnaeus believed 

 H. flava and H. fiilva (commonly known as the yellow lily and 

 day lily respectively) to form a composite type species {H. lilio- 

 asphodeliis) , for the genus, and that one was really a variety of 

 the other, a fact readily comprehensible when their great ana- 

 tomical, if not .physiological resemblance, be kept in mind. 



