tim AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



75 



Book wiere of very little use here, so I procured a copy of 

 Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States, 



Soon after, I got into a correspondence with the 

 author, Dr. A. W. Chapman, which was kept up at inter- 

 vals until his death. In the course of this correspondence 

 the question as to whether Zephyranthes Treatea was a 

 good species or only a subvariety of Z. AtamascowsiS dis- 

 cussed. He always expressed the opinion that it was not 

 a distinct species. 



Z. Treatea grows abundantly in this part of Florida. 

 Dr. Chapman sent me some bulbs which he wrote were the 

 typical Z. Atamasco. These have now been growing in 

 my flower garden for over fifteen years, blooming every 

 year and no botanist in the world could distinguish the 

 unopened flower buds, the open flowers or the ripening 

 seed stalks and pods from those of Z. Treatea found by the 

 thousand near by. There is absolutely no difference be- 

 tween the two except in the leaves. More than that, soon 

 after I received the bulbs from Dr. Chapman being at the 

 time connected with the Florida Dispatch I asked the 

 readers to send me specimens of the '^Easter lily" as these 

 flowers are called in Florida. I received some from several 

 different parts of the state. When growing I found that I 

 had bulbs with leaves varying from the nearly round form 

 of Z. Treatea up through different widths to the full 

 breadth of the typical Z, Atamasco. The flowers of all 

 these forms were exactly alike and like Z. Atamasco. 



In the case of the Habenarias, Gray and Wood in their 

 botanies describe ciliaris and hlephariglottis as distinct 

 species. Dr. Chapman, however, gives hlephariglottis as 

 a subvariety of ciliaris. Some years ago I found positive- 

 proof that he is correct. I found within a mile or two 

 plants bearing the rich orange colored blossoms of H. cili- 

 aris and others with the pure white of H, hlephariglottis. 

 But more than this I found other plants of all possible 

 shades between, not one or two but dozens of them, some 

 just creamy white, others lemon yellow in fact a half 

 dozen varying shades between orange and pure white. I 



