ANDROSTEPHIUM VIOLACEUM. 
CROWNED LILY. 
NATURAL ORDER, LILIACE, 
ANDROSTEPHIUM VIOLACEUM, Torrey.—Bulb globose, tunicated, eight to nine lines thick, exter- 
nal membrane separate from the interior. Leaves four to six, appearing with the flowers, 
six to eight inches long, scarcely more than half a line wide. Scape two to four inches 
long. Spathe of three or four lanceolate, membranaceous pieces. Umbel three to four flow- 
ered, pedicels six to twelve lines long. Perianth violet, ten to twelve lines long. Crown 
three lines long. Style five to six lines long, drawn up above the crown. Segments two to 
two and a half lines long. (Baker in xi. vol. of the Yournal of the Linnean Society of 
London. See also Botany of the Mexican Boundary Commission.) 
GAMA TER the war which occurred between Mexico and the 
United States, about the middle of the present century, 
large tracts of Mexican territory were ceded to the United 
States, by which its lines were very much extended. It became 
necessary to have a clear understanding as to the exact boun- 
daries between the two countries, so a commission was agreed 
upon, by which officers from each should together make a 
survey. On the part of the United States, Lieutenant W. H. 
Emory was placed in charge of the party, receiving his commis- 
sion from the President in 1854. Competent assistants in the 
various branches of science were appointed, and full collections 
of objects of Natural History made; and the results of their 
labors are known in literature as the “Reports of the Mexican 
Boundary Survey.” The Botany of the expedition was worked 
up by Dr. Torrey, and it was here that he first described the 
genus Androslephium as now understood, the name being evi- 
dently derived from two Greek words referring to the crown-like 
arrangement of the stamens, so conspicuous in the centre of the 
(169) 
