336 SMILAX FAMILY. 



Tamils elephantipes, or TKSTI:IIINARIA ELAPHAVTIPES, of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, is a curiosity in conservatories ; the globular or hemispherical 

 trunk, resting on the ground, covered with very thick bark soon cracked into 

 separate portions, und resembling the bark of a tortoise; out of it spring every 

 year slender twining stems, bearing rounded heart-shaped or kidney-shaped leaves. 



1. DIOSCOKEA, YAM. (Named for L .scoride*.} Flowers in axillary 

 panicles or racemes: stamens 6 in the sterile ones, separate. Fertile ones 

 producing a 3-celled 3-winged pod, when ripe splitting through the wings. 

 Fl. summer. 2/ 



D. Vill6sa, WILD YAM : sends up from a knotty rootstock its slender 

 stems, bearing heart-shaped pointed leaves, either alternate, opposite, or some 

 in fours, 9-11-ribbed and with prominent cross-veinlets. Jn thickets, com- 

 moner S. : slightly downy, or usually almost smooth, so that the specific name 

 is not a good one 



D. Batatas (or D. JAP6NICA of some), CHINESE YAM : cult, from China 

 and Japan, for ornament, or for its very deep and long farinaceous roots, 

 a substitute for potatoes, if one could only dig them ; with very smooth heart- 

 shaped partly halberd-shaped opposite leaves, and produces bulblets in the axils. 



D. sativa, TRUE YAM, with great thick roots, is only of hot climates. 



123. SMILACE^I, SMILAX FAMILY. 



Chiefly woody-stemmed plants, a few herbaceous, climbing or 

 supported by a pair of tendrils on the sides of the petiole, having 

 ribbed and netted-veined leaves and small dioecious flowers, as in the 

 foregoing ; but the ovary is free from the perianth, bears mostly 3 

 long and diverging sessile stigmas, and in fruit is a berry ; the an- 

 thers are only 1 -celled, opening by one longitudinal slit (the division 

 of the cell, if any, corresponding with the slit). Consists of the genus 



1. SMILAX, GREENBRIER, CATBRIER, or CHINA-BRIER. (An- 

 cient Greek name.) All wild species, in thickets and low grounds ; flowers 

 small, greenish, in clusters on axillary peduncles, in summer, or several of 

 the Southern prickly ones in spring. 



1 . Stems troody, often prickly : ovules and seeds only one in each cell. 



* Smooth, and t/ie leaves often ylossy, 5- 9-ribbed : stiymas and cells oforary 3. 



*- Ben-ies red : peduncles short: Itares 5-ribbed: prickles hardly any. 



S. lanceolata, from Virginia S. : climbs high ; leaves evergreen, lance- 

 ovate or lanceolate, acute at both ends ; rootstock tuberous. 



S. Walter!, from New Jrr-ev S. : 6 high ; leaves deciduous, ovate or 

 lance-oval, roundish or slightly heart-shaped ; peduncles Hat; rootstock creeping. 



*- Beiries black, often with a bloom : lettres mostly roundish or somewhat heart- 

 taaped (it IKISC : peduncles almost always Jlat. 



S. rotimdif61ia, COMMON (iin.KNHRiER. Yellowish-green, often high- 

 climbing; branclilrts more or less square, armed with scattered prickles; leaves 

 ovate or round-ovate, thickish, green both sides, i>'-3' long; peduncles few- 

 flowered, not longer than the petioles. 



S. glauca. Mostly S. of New York: like the preceding, but Jess prickly, 

 the ovate leaves glaucous beneath and seldom at all heart-shaped, smooth edged, 

 and peduncles longer than petiole. 



S. tamnoides. New Jersey to 111. and S. : differs from preceding in the 

 leaves varying from round-heart-shaped to tidd 'shaped and hal herd-shaped, 

 green both sides, pointed, and the edges often S] -iiseh bristly. 



S. Pseudo-China, CHINA-HKIKK ; from N'ew Jersey and Kentucky S.: 

 rootstock tuberous; prickles none or rare; leaves ovate and heart-shaped, green 

 both sides, often contracted in the middle, and rough-ciliate, 3' -5' long; Hat 

 peduncles 2' -3' long. 



