TRILLIUM VIRIDE Beck, Am. Jour. Sci. II : 178. 1826. Trillium virideseens Nutt. Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. (II.) 5: 155. 1837.
Trillium sessile var. Nuttallii S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 14: 273. 1879.
Perennial by a short corm-like rootstock, bright green, more or less pubescent. Stems solitary, or several together, 1-4 dm. tall, purple, rough-pubescent at least near the top ; leaves oblong, ovate, or broadly ovate, 5-11 cm. long, acute or obtusish, 3-5-nerved, usually blotched, more or less pubescent on the nerves beneath, abruptly short-attenuate at the base ; flowers sessile ; sepals linear or linear-lanceolate, 2.5-5 cm. long, bright green, acute or obtuse, erect or spreading ; petals clawed, the blades linear or nearly so, 2.5-6 cm. long, surpassing the sepals, light green or purplish green, acute or obtuse, on brown or purple claws; stamens about as long as the petals; filaments flattened, shorter than the anthers ; berry not seen.
Prof. Beck published a good description of this species in the year 1826. Mr. Nuttall described an apparently extreme form of the same species eleven years later. With these two full de
scriptions and the original specimens of Mr. Nuttall extant, it seems strange that Trillium virile Beck, and Trillium viridescens Nutt., being one and the same species, should, on the one hand, be made a synonym and on the other a variety of a species to which it is only distantly related ; the clawed petals, among many other characters, primarily prevent it being associated with Tril lium sessile. Its true relationship is with Trillium rccuivalum.
- • Mr. Nuttall collected the original specimens of 7)7llium viri descens in Arkansas, and of this collection there are good speci mens preserved. Prof. Beck's plants came from St. Louis and, although I have not seen his original specimens, we have a speci men from the same place collected by Riehl in 1841, and, in addi tion to this, Mr. Henry Eggert has sent me excellent material from the vicinity of St. Louis collected during the past few years. All these plants, as well as those from the extremities of the known geographic range cited above, agree with each other in essential specific characters.