Zygadenus. 



MELANTHACEiE. 



315 



1. ZYGADENUS. Mich.fl. 1. p. 213 ; Gray, Melanth. Amer. sept, in ann. lyc. N. York, 



4. p. 111. ZYGADENUS. 

 [ From the Greek, zygos, a yoke, and aden, a gland ; the glands of the perianth being in pairs.] 



Anticlea, Kunlh. 



Flowers perfect (or rarely polygamous). Leaflets of the perianth united at the base, spreading, 

 without claws ; the lower part of each furnished with two (sometimes connate) glands. 

 Stamens 6 ; the filaments dilated at the base, and inserted with the leaflets of the perianth, 

 which they equal in length : anthers cordate, with the cells confluent at the apex, shield- 

 form after dehiscence. Styles 3, slender : stigmas simple and somewhat capitate. Capsule 

 ovoid-conical, 3-lobed ; the carpels finally separating at the summit, and opening on the 

 inside : cells 6 - 10-seeded. Seeds oblong, narrowly winged on one side, and sometimes 

 with a membranaceous appendage at the summit. — Stems bulbous at the base, or springing 

 from a creeping rhizoma, leafy. Leaves linear. Inflorescence paniculate : flowers white 

 or greenish. 



1. Zygadenus glaucus, Nutt. Glaucous-leaved Zygadenus. 



Bulb tunicated ; leaves shorter than the stem ; bracts lanceolate, shorter than the pedicels ; 

 leaflets of the perianth oval or obovate, obtuse; glands single, obcordate. — Nutt. in jour. acad. 

 Phil. 7. p. 56 ; Gray, I. c. p. 113. Z. commutatus, Razm. Schult. syst. 7. p. 1559. Z. 

 chloranthus, Richards, app. Frankl. nar. (ed. 2.) p. 12 ; Torr. in ann. lyc. N. Y. 2. p. 251 ; 

 Hook. fl. Bor.-Am. 2. p. 177. Melanthium glaucum, Nutt. gen. 1. p. 232 ; Torr. fl. 1. 

 p. 367 ; Beck, hot. p. 366. Anticlea glauca, Kunth, enum. 4. p. 192. 



Stem 1-2 feet high, naked above, slender. Leaves mostly radical, finely nerved, 2-4 

 lines wide, rather obtuse, very smooth. Panicle with few erect branches, or reduced to almost 

 a simple raceme. Pedicels from half an inch to an inch in length. Flowers nearly three- 

 fourths of an inch in diameter, sometimes polygamous. Perianth greenish, turbinate and 

 adherent to the ovary at the base ; each leaflet with a conspicuous adnate gland. Stamens 

 about the length of the perianth : filaments slender : anthers somewhat reniform. Ovary 

 oblong : styles finally recurved, stigmatose at the extremity. Capsule membranaceous. Seeds 

 (immature) compressed, 7 - 10 in each cell, winged on one side, and with an appendage at 

 the summit ; the chalaza very conspicuous. 



Gravelly banks of the St. Lawrence, in calcareous soil ; also about the Falls of Niagara, 

 and on Lake Erie (Nuttall). A widely diffused species, but rare in this Stale. 



40* 



