Macbride — New or otherwise interesting Liliaceae 11 
class of characters that have proved unreliable in the case of 
Brodiaea. The material at hand however is so meager that this 
question cannot be taken up satisfactorily at present. 
Bessera tenuiflora (Greene), Sr nov. Behria tenuiflora 
Greene, Bull. Cal. Acad. ii. 143 (188 6). 
As Hbaerved by Greene, |. c. 129-130, the exclusion from Brodiaea 
of Brevoortia naturally calls for the recognition of the genus Behria 
Greene to take care of a plant from Lower California which has a 
quite similar perianth but very different stamineal structure. 
Likewise the inclusion in Brodiaea of Brevoortia and especially 
of Androstephium (as discussed above) sets aside Greene’s argu- 
ments for the creation of yet another genus for this plant (i.e. B. 
tenuiflora) because the character of Brodiaea when so amplified 
suffices, at least so far as the characters Greene uses as a means of 
distinguishing his genus Behria are concerned. But even so there 
are points of difference between Behria and Brodiaea which, after 
all, may keep them apart. The stamens in Behria are long-exserted 
from the bright red corolla and the filaments are united at base 
into a short tube — a combination of characters not found in any 
species of Brodiaea even when that genus is taken to include Bre- 
voortia and Androstephium. The former has a similarly formed red 
perianth but the stamens are free and included; the latter has the 
Perianth of Brodiaea but the stamens (included, however) are 
joined ina tube. Behria, then, may be said to possess as diagnostic 
character the long-exserted stamens and the combined feature of 
the red perianth and partially united filaments. But is this not 
the salient character of Bessera ? Indeed that genus differs only 
in the greater division of the perianth segments and the union of 
the filaments into an elongate tube — differences purely of degree. 
The situation resolves itself, therefore, into a question as to the 
validity of the genus Bessera. With Androstephium sunk in 
Brodiaea the technical position of Bessera is indeed weakened but 
on the other hand it must be remembered that whereas the species 
of the former group are characterized by the more or less united 
filaments they are Brodiaeas in every other respect, notably in the 
cluded stamens, color of the flowers and general aspect, whereas 
the Species of Bessera are at once unique both in character and 
aspect by the combination of red flowers and long-exserted stamens. 
Finally it may be mentioned that no Brodiaea is truly a component 


