PETIVERIACEAE 485 
food. The young shoots are sometimes used as a substitute for asparagus or 
cooked as greens. The roots contain a deadly poison.—PokKEs. INKBERRIES. 
SCOKES. PIGEON-BERRIES. 
Panicles nodding in fruit: berry shorter than its stalk. 1. P. americana. 
Panicles permanently erect: berry longer than its stalk. 2. P. rigida. 
americana L. 1-3 tall, the branches green, magenta, or 
: Plants m. . 
purple: leaf- Heg mainly ovate-laneeolate to ovate, 9-30 em. long: calyx 5-6 
wide: berry 7-10 mm. wide, its length 
less $ than the oe of its stalks: seed about 
3 lon 
Minn and Me.—Spr.—fall. D The Pe of 
this dus the fo "uia species are white 
often sordid or flushed with purple. The 
berries are often used to pem a red ink. 
2. P. rigida Small. Plants 1-3 m. tall, or 
sometimes arborescent and becoming 6 or 7 
m. tall, the branches greenish-purple: leaf- 
py lanceolate to oblo ee lanceolate, 7-34 . 
long: berry 10- wide.—Ham 
i ge a ale Eom oma Plain, Fla, 
to Tex ll yea 
4. AGDESTIS Moc. & Sessé. Vines with tur rnip-like roots and copiously 
branched stems. Leaf-blades very broad. Flowers perfect, borne in panicles. 
s 4, or rarely 5, spreading, persistent. Stamens numerous: filaments 
deniers anthers narrow.  Ovary inferior: : 
se 
Achene 4—5-winged.—The flowers are white 
or greenish-white. 
re , 3- ng, obtuse at the apex, 
broadly cordate or truncate at the base, long- 
p les ny- owered, mostly 
1-1.5 dm. long: sepals mainly oblong or 
oval, 4-6 mm. long: achene turbinate, the 
wings 11- m. b oad en tip to tip.— 
8 f 
Hammocks and waste-places, S pen. Fla. 
and Tex.—Nat. of Mex. and eult.—All year. 
= Extensively grown in S Fla. as an ornamental vine. 
Famity 7. PETIVERIACHAE — Petiverra FAMILY 
Woody plants, usually strong-scented. Leaves alternate: um firm, 
entire. Flowers perfect, in virgate spikes. Hypanthium present. Cal 
of 4 nearly equal sepals. Corolla wanting. Androecium of neg stamens, 
borne in the hypanthium. Fruit an achene with reflexed spines at the top. 
—Consists of the following genus and species. 
