greenish subrigid terete to 4-angled stems and branches bearing stout flattened 

 prickles; tendrils numerous; leaves shortly petioled, narrowly ovate to suborbic- 

 ular or reniform, with rounded to cordate bases, bright-green on both sides, 

 lustrous, thinnish, becoming subcoriaceous, mostly 4.5-10 cm. long, often muric- 

 ulate on back near base; peduncles to 15 mm. long, ascending to divergent; pedi- 

 cels 2-7 mm. long; flowers greenish to bronze; berries blue-black, with bloom, 

 mostly 2- to 3-seeded. Incl. var. quadrangular is (Muhl.) Wood. 



Moist to dryish thickets and woods, evergreen shrub bogs, often a noxious 

 pest in e. Okla. and e. Tex., Mar.-June; from Fla. to Tex., n. to N.S., s. Me., 

 s. N.H., N.Y., s. Ont.. O.. Ind., s. 111., s.e. Mo. and Okla. 



3. Sniilax Walter! Pursh. Coral green-brier, red-berried bamboo. 



Slender and lithe woody vine, with widely creeping slender rhizomes, clamber- 

 ing over bushes; lower half of the stem with scattered subulate prickles, the terete 

 branches nearly or quite without prickles; tendrils numerous; leaves submembrana- 

 ceous, smooth, green on both sides, when dried very lightly orange-tinged with 

 brown, ovate to ovate-oblong or triangular-ovate, with rounded bases, rounded 

 to obtuse and mucronate at apex, mostly 6-12 cm. long and 3-7 cm. broad; 

 peduncles mostly shorter than petioles; flowers greenish to bronze; berries bright- 

 red, handsome, persistent over the winter. 



Swampy or boggy thickets, low pinelands, rare in e. Tex., Mar.-June; from 

 Fla. to Tex., n. to N.J. 



Fam. 36. Amaryllidaceae St. Hil. Amaryllis Family 



Mostly perennial herbs, herbaceous or sometimes with a woody base or with 

 somewhat woody stems; flowering stems scapose, from a bulb or corm, a short 

 rootstock or a large woody caudex; leaves of a linear type and entire; flowers 

 perfect, regular or nearly so; perianth segments 6, distinct or mostly united below 

 into a tube that is adnate to the ovary; stamens 6, rarely more or only 3, inserted 

 on the perianth, the filaments free or united in a cup; anthers basifixed or versa- 

 tile, dehiscing usually by introrse longitudinal slits; ovary inferior, 3-celled; style 

 3-lobed; fruit usually a 3-valved capsule with loculicidal dehiscence or sometimes 

 indehiscent; seeds usually numerous. 



Broadly interpreted the family probably has nearly 2,000 species in about 100 

 genera, rather cosmopolitan but mostly in tropical and subtropical regions of both 

 hemispheres. Some of the species are highly ornamental while others, such as 

 Agaves, are important economically. 



The commonly cultivated Amaryllis Belladonna L., a native of Latin America, 

 occasionally escapes. It is abundantly spread in and along a slough on the west 

 edge of Edna in Jackson County, Texas, where it is well-established. It is readily 

 distinguished by its umbellate cluster of large (to 15 cm. long) reddish to salmon- 

 color bell-shaped flowers, and its basal cluster of broad, fleshy, strap-shaped 

 leaves. 



\. Flowers with a conspicuous corona above the perianth 1. Hymenocallis 



1. Flowers without a corona (2) 



2(1). Perianth segments pilose on the outer surface; foliage grasslike, herbaceous, 

 usually villous or pilose 2. Hypoxis 



2. Perianth segments glabrous; foliage mostly broad and fleshy-thickened, rarely 



grasslike, glabrous or essentially so (3) 



3(2). Flowers several in an umbel; spathes 2, large and broad 6. Crinuni 



3. Flower solitary; spathe solitary, narrow (4) 



664 



