2X2 



On the Flowers of Solatium 



[April, 



recent years have been fattened in that region. It is found abun- 

 dantly in Western Nebraska at present, and although it may have 

 been introduced there in like manner, I presume it is indigenous. 

 It is so put down, I believe, in Coulter's Flora of Colorado. 

 It has rather conspicuous flowers, of a pure sulphur-yellow color, 

 and of the form repre- 

 sented in the figure. It is 

 a Solatium, but very unlike 

 the more familiar forms of 

 the genus. The essential 

 organs are quite unsym- 

 metrical. Four of the sta- 

 mens are of the normal or 

 usual form, but the fifth, 

 which is on the lower side 

 of the flower, is about 

 twice the length of the 

 others, and has a large, 

 tapering anther, which 

 about the middle is crooked 

 to one side, and its slender 

 apex curved upward as is 

 represented in the figure. 

 This irregularity, doubt- 

 less earned for the plant, 



^stratum, a, flower (nat- The anthers open by ter- 



viet'oflhetn;: ^'"aml minal chinks or P° reS > aS 



from above. is common to this genus. 



The long anther shows considerable elasticity, and in its move- 

 ments throws a puff of pollen from its apex, which, as will be 

 seen, is turned upward and at right angles with its axis. 



The pistil, as will be seen from the figure, is turned so as to 

 resemble in general form, size and position, the long anther just 

 described, with this exception, that it turns toward the opposite 

 side of the flower. Moreover, the pistil and longer stamen, in 

 different flowers, exchange directions, so that in some the pistil 

 turns to the right hand, and the stamen to the left, and in 

 others vice versa. We will, for convenience, call the flowers in 

 which the pistil turns to the right hand, facing as the flower, 



