Narthecium, which agrees most in habit with the genus before us, is distinguished from it by the want of a calyx; as well as by having a simple germen and single style; hairy filaments; and a membranous tunic, tapering at each end, to the seeds. Anthericum, including the Phalangium of Tournefort and Jussieu, differs from Tofieldia in having no calyx; a simple germen and style; and angular seeds. Helonias, to which Willdenow refers our T. palustris, confounding under that solitary species nearly the whole genus, has a simple germen and capsule, though three styles; very few seeds in each cell; and wants the calyx.
The species of Tofieldia have hitherto been even less understood than its generic characters, as the following exposition will show.
T. palustris. Huds. Angl. 157. Sm. Brit. 397. Engl. Bot. t. 536. Ait. Hort. Kew. v. ii. 324.
T. pusilla. Pursh Amer. Sept. 246.
Anthericum calyculatum. Linn. Sp. Pl. 447. Fl. Lapp. cd. ii. 106. t. 10. f. 3. Fl. Dan. t. 36. Lightf. Scot. 181. t. 8. f. 2.
Helonias borealis. Willd. Sp. Pl. v. ii. 274.
Narthecium pusillum. Michaux Boreali-Amer. v. i. 209.
Phalangium scoticum palustre minimum, iridis folio. Raii Syn. 375. Tourn. Inst. 369.
Native of the black boggy margins of pools and trickling rills, on the mountains of Lapland, Scotland, Durham, and North America, particularly lake Mistassins, flowering from June to August.
This is a perennial herbaceous plant, of humble stature, entirely smooth in every part. The root is horizontal and somewhat tuberous, or woody, but slender, with very long, tough, white, zig-
