302 CLVI. LILIACER. (J. D. Hooker.) 
Leaves radical or whorled. Flowers solitary or umbelled. Anthers 
dehiscing extrorsely. l 
Leaves radical or subradical ; flowers solitary or umbelled . . 33. Con 
Leaves 3 in a whorl; flowers solitary . - © + + + 34 Laie 
Leaves 4 or more in a whorl e . . . «+ 85, PABIS. 
1. SMILAX, Linn. 
Climbing shrubs (rarely erect herbs). Leaves alternate, rarely 
opposite, persistent, 3-5-nerved and reticulate; petiole usually xu 
riferous above the base. Flowers dicecious,s mall, umbelled. Perion 
segments 6, free, incurved or recurved. MALE FL. Stamens 6, or more, at the 
base of the perianth, free; anthers didymous, oblong, or the cells separa 3 
by a forking of the filament. Fem. FL. Staminodes 3 or 6. Onar Á 
gonous, 3-celled ; style 0, or short, stigmas 3, stout, recurved ; ovules g 0 , 
2 in each cell, orthotropous, pendulous. Fruit a globose berry. br g 
solitary, or more often 2 hemispheric, rarely 3; albumen horny; em ry 
small.—Species about 180, temperate and tropical. 
The only authoritative nomenclature for most of the Indian species of Smilaz 8 
the great Herbarium of Wallich, in which these are copiously represented, but in po eg 
cases almost inextricably mixed, When to this is added the wide differences be "fre 
the foliage and inflorescence of different parts of the same specimen, anc he vil 
quent difficulty of matching males with females and flowering with fruiting P g 
mens, it is obvious that much confusion must attend any attempt to systemate y 
species upon any but very complete materials, and such do not exist in any lit 
rium. Unfortunately Kunth, when monographing the genus for his *' LX die 
Plantarum," and M. A. De Candolle for his monograph, had not access to Wa ae 
Herbarium,and had recourse to duplicates distributed from it to various European dy of 
baria, which were invariably fragmentary and often wrongly numbered. Ane » 
the Wallichian types has hence obliged me to set aside various determina S 
of these excellent botanists. Nor can I follow M. De Candolle in his primam of 
other divisions of the genus. These are founded on the one- or two-ovuled ce it o 
the ovary, and on the inflorescence. That of the ovarian cells is very de, e 
observation, is unavailable in the absence of fem. fl., it does not tally with hab! De 
other characters, and I doubt its constancy. That of the inflorescence want Pod 
cision, and, as it appears to me, also confirmation by a study of the whole plan bas 
that it cannot be established on fragments. I am far, however, from regarding ^ 
valueless because I have been unable to understand and apply it. The arrange icted 
I have adopted is, I think, natural, though far from satisfactory. I have res "other 
the citations of authors to such as I feel pretty sure of; and, as with 50 many with 
Indian genera, I find that any attempt to determine the identity of the species 
the insufficient descriptions of the authors of the Malayan Floras is hopeless. 
D T. 
Sect. I. Comanruvs. Buds globose. Sepals incurved 1n Mr! 
Stamens much shorter than the perianth. Ovules (when known) 8007 
in the ovarian-cells. 
1. S. glabra, Rob, FI. Ind. iii. 792; leaves 3-6 by 14-24 in. dE. 
or ovate-lanceolate acuminate 3-costate, petiole 1-3 in., sheath jm 369; 
axillary, umbels sub-sessile. Wall. Cat. 5114; Benth. Fl. Hongk. S. 
Seem. Bot. Herald. Voy. 490, t. 100; A.DC. Monogr. Smilax, 
Hookeri, Kunth Enum. v. 162 (excl. syn. Burm. & Lour.). 
AssaM, SILHET and the lower Kuasta HILLS, Wallich, &c. Terasse? 
Gallatly.—DISTRIB. China. 
