Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 12.djvu/276

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244
Sir J. E. Smith's Botanical History
244

nified.A is the calyx with its flower-stalk and bractea.B, a petal.C, Stamen.D, Germens and styles.

4. T. cernua, racemo cylindraceo, floribus cernuis, bracteis brevissimis, pedunculis glabris longitudine corollæ, caule aphyllo.

Anthericum filamentis lævibus, perianthio integerrimo. Gmelin Mss.

A. n. 39. Gmelin Sibir. v. i. 73. t. 18. f. 2; the synonyms altogether erroneous.

Native of mountainous woods, near the river Lena, in Siberia, flowering about the end of July. Specimens in flower and fruit, sent by Gmelin, are preserved in the Linnæan herbarium; and we find with astonishment that when the first edition of the Species Plantarum was written, they were confounded with the genuine Lapland Anthericum calyculatum, even by Linnæus himself.

The present most distinct species is as different from T. palustris as two plants of one natural genus can well be. It is more akin to our second and third species, with which it accords in general aspect, but the roots are of a more creeping nature, and the stem is taller, a foot or more in height, quite leafless, except at the very base, cylindrical throughout, glaucous in the upper part. Leaves narrow, near three inches long, with a small oblique point; their edges rough toward the extremity. Cluster erect, many-flowered, from two to four inches in length, rather lax, but scarcely interrupted. Partial flower-stalks nearly horizontal, slender, angular when dry, quite smooth, about one eighth of an inch long, and as the fruit advances becoming still longer. Bracteas solitary at the base of each stalk, and about a quarter as long, ovate, keeled, a little recurved. Flowers white, drooping, about twice the size of Convallaria bifolia. Calyx dilated, with three

shallow,