366 
NeiJO  Species  of  Erythronium. 
f  Am.  Joub.  Phaem. 
t    Aug.  1,  1871. 
A  NEW  SPECIES  OF  ERYTHRONIUM. 
By  Professor  Asa  Gray. 
Ordinarily  it  is  hardly  worth  while  to  make  a  separate  article  for 
a  single  new  species  of'  plant,  even  when  discovered  in  a  district  in 
which  a  new  flowering  plant  is  unexpected.  Bat  the  species  of  Erif- 
thronmm  are  so  few,  and  the  present  one  is  so  peculiar,  and  its  habitat 
so  closely  bordering  the  region  included  in  my  Manual  of  the  Botany 
of  the  Northern  United  States,  that  I  need  not  apologize  for  bringing 
it  at  once  to  notice. 
The  specimens  before  me,  accompanied  by  a  colored  drawing,  are 
just  received  from  Miss  S.  P.  Darlington  (a  daughter  of  the  late  Dr. 
Darlington,  long  the  Nestor  of  American  botanists  and  one  of  the 
best  of  men),  and  were  collected  at  Faribault,  Minnesota,  by  Mrs. 
Mary  B.  Hedges,  the  teacher  of  Botany  in  St.  Mary's  Hall,  a  school 
of  which  Miss  Darlington  is  Principal. 
The  flower  is  much  smaller  than  that  of  any  other  known  species^ 
being  barely  half  an  inch  long  ;  and  its  color,  a  bright  pink  or  rose,, 
like  that  of  the  European  E.  Bens-Oanis,  reflects  the  meaning  of  the 
generic  name  (viz.  red),  which  is  lost  to  us  in  our  two  familiar  Adder- 
tongues,  one  with  yellow,  the  other  with  white,  blossoms.  The  most 
singular  peculiarity  of  the  new  species  is  found  in  the  way  in  which 
the  bulb  propagates.  In  E.  Dens-Cams  new  bulbs  are  produced 
directly  from  the  side  of  the  old  one,  on  which  they  are  sessile,  so 
that  the  plant  as  it  multiplies  forms  close  clumps.  In  our  E.  Ameri- 
canmn  long  and  slender  offshoots,  or  subterranean  runners,  proceed 
from  the  base  of  the  parent  bulb  and  develop  the  new  bulb  at  their 
distant  apex.  Our  Western  E.  albidum  does  not  differ  in  this  respect. 
In  the  new  species  an  offshoot  springs  from  the  ascending  slender 
stem,  or  subterranean  sheathed  portion  of  the  scape  (which  is  com- 
monly five  or  six  inches  long),  remote  from  the  parent  bulb,  usually 
about  mid-way  between  it  and  the  bases  or  apparent  insertion  of  the 
pair  of  leaves ;  this  lateral  offshoot  grows  downward,  sometimes 
lengthening  as  in  the  foregoing  species,  sometimes  remaining  short, 
and  its  apex  dilates  into  the  new  bulb. 
This  peculiarity  was  noticed  by  Mrs.  Hedges,  the  discoverer  of  this 
interesting  plant,  to  whom  great  credit  is  due.  Most  lady  botanists 
are  content  with  what  appears  above  the  surface  ;  but  she  went  to  the 
root  of  the  matter  at  once.    I  learn  that  E.  albidum  abounds  in  the 
