﻿PLANTS PRATTENIANiE CALIFORNIA. 95 



Mr. Pratten's plant, as well as other specimens collected at Calaveras by Dr. Heer- 

 mann, are all in the first stage of florescence and dwarfish ; the scape is 5— 8-fiowered, 

 3 — 5" high; the leaves are round-spathulate/ls — II" long including the petiole ; they 

 are entire, with a conspicuous subscarious margin ; the filaments are completely 

 connate in a tube of a deep violet color, shorter than that of the yellow anthers and 

 contiguous with it ; the anthers, therefore, appear quite sessile, and are broader than 

 in D. meadia and its varieties, and rather obtuse. Specimens collected by Mr. 

 Nuttall, on the plains of the Columbia river, labelled by him D. ellipticum, and, I 

 believe, as yet unpublished, are perfectly identical with Pratten and Heermann's 

 plants, although in a more advanced stage of florescence and greater development 

 of scapes and leaves; the latter, however, do not exceed 2£" in length including 

 the petiole. I suspect that Beechey's California specimens, from which Decandolle 

 has, in part, evidently, described his D. integri folium, belong also to the same 

 species.f 



+ Sj far, four or five species of Dodecatheons have been described; but there is such a discrepancy in their 

 descriptions, and their forms are so variable, that I felt inclined to follow my highly esteemed friend Prof. Asa 

 Grey, in uniting them all together into a single species. However, on examining attentively and comparing the 

 numerous specimens I have before me, I can not but find at least two very distinct species and several varieties, 

 which I divide as follows : 



* Filamentis liberis in tubum approximatis. 



DODECATHEON meadia, Linn. a. Foliis ovato-oblongis, integris vel repando-dentatis ; umbellis multifloris ; 

 floribus nutantibus ; involucri foliolis ovato-spathulatis lanceolatisve ; filamentis fiavis glandula purpurea ad 

 apicem instructis ; antheris elongatis acuminatis. In regionibus orientalibus usque ad flumen Missouri. 



3. Var. pauciflora. — D. inlegrifolium, Mich, non D. C. Foliis oblongo-ovalibus integerrimis (nonnunquam 

 repando-dentatis); umbellis paucifloris, 3 — 5; floribus suberectis, dense purpureis ; antheris atro-violaceis ; 

 bracteolis linearibus. Ad orientem et occidentem fluminis Missouri usque ad Montes Scopulosos. 



y. Var. integrifolia. — D. integri folium, Nutt. non Mich, neque D. C. D. frigidum ? Cham. Foliis numerosis, 

 congestis, oblongo-ovatis, et una cum petiolis vix 3-pollicaribus. Scapo 5 — 10-fioro, 6 — 10" alto ; involucri foliolis 

 lineari-lauceolatis acutis, nonnunquam longissimis ; floribus breve pedicellatis, suberectis, albis, vel purpureis- 

 Vicli specimen e regione arctica, D. frigidum inscriptum, omnino consimile. Habitus a praecedentibus dis- 

 similis atque minor; forte species distincta? In regionibus Oceani Pacifici. 



** Filamentis in tubum connatis. 



D. ellipticum, Nutt. Partim D. integri folium, D. C. ; partim D. frigidum, Cham. inD. C. Prodr. In California 

 et Oregon. Nuttall, Beechey, Heermann, Pratten. 



I have examined, in Mr. Kilvington's garden, an abundance of seedlings of Dodecatheon in flower, obtained 

 from different sources ; but all from the species D. meadia, var. a and 3. In the former the flowers are hanging, and 

 vary in color from white to lilac and different shades of purple ; the anthers and filaments are yellow, the glands 

 deep purple. The leaves are from 4 — 8" long. In the latter the flowers are generally erect, of a deep purple 

 color, with violet anthers and yellow filaments ; the leaves are oval, oblong, entire, but sometimes coarsely den- 

 tate and not marginate. In both the anthers are very acuminate, and the filaments free, remote, or somewhat 

 approximated, but never connate as in D. ellipticum. I have not seen D. denlaium of Hooker, but I suspect it 

 to be the var. 3, with dentate leaves, as I have seen some, remarkably so, in Mr. Kilvington's garden. Some 

 seeds were obtained from the far west, and I have no doubt that var. \% came from that region;, the rest were 

 from Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and the Southern States. 



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