82 Mr. J. Cosmo Melvill on 



Catalogue bears witness, may yield in time to an inter- 

 national agreement that when generic or specific names 

 have been in general use for over 50 or 75 years without 

 let or hindrance, even though they be antedated by terms 

 obsolete and forgotten, these universally known cognomina 

 be permitted to be retained. 



Formerly, then, included in Anthericum L., Kunth 

 separated his Simethis bicolor from that genus, owing to 

 the filaments being bearded in the lower half; in all 

 other respects it agrees with the larger genus, so well 

 known by the fine species A.Liliago L., which adorns 

 grassy hills in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. 



S. bicolor has the flower stalks more lax, so that they 

 with difficulty support the numerous capsules. The tuft 

 of fasciculated fibrous root-bundles is likewise charac- 

 teristic, as are also the bicolorous perianth, white within, 

 lilac exteriorly. The leaves also are flattened, more so 

 than in the true Anthericum of Europe. 



As regards the distribution of this plant, it may be 

 called essentially an occidental European species. 



Nyman (Conspectus Fl. Eur., p. 719) gives the follow- 

 ing localities : — 



Hibernia (co. Kerry). 



Anglia (Dorsetshire, nr. Bournemouth). 



Gallia occidentalis, centralis, meridionalis (dep. Var.) 



Lusitania. 



Hispania borealis. Granada (S. Roque). 



Corsica. 



Sardinia. 



Hetruria (La Maremma). 



Outside Europe, it is reported from 



(a) Morocco. 



cf. Ball. Spic. Flor. Maroccance in Journ. Linn. Soc, 

 Vol. XVI., p. 693, where the localities are given : — 



Maron. sept, circa Tanger, et copiose in Monte 



