9. Malaxis Sw. 



About 150 species that attain their greatest development in Asia and Oceania; 

 also widely distributed in the Western Hemisphere and sparsely in Europe. 



1. Malaxis unifolia Michx. Fig. 376. 



Plant bright green, erect, 6-55 cm. tall; scape from a bulbous corm, somewhat 

 angled and winged; leaf solitary, sheathing the stem below, expanded near the 

 middle of the scape; blade sessile and clasping the stem, orbicular-ovate to ovate- 

 lanceolate, obtuse to acute, to 9 cm. long and 6.5 cm. wide, usually much smaller; 

 raceme subcorymbose to slender-elongate, densely flowered, to 16 cm. long and 

 2.5 cm. in diameter; floral bracts minute, subulate, 1-3 mm. long; flowers minute, 

 green, with filiform pedicellate ovaries 3-10 mm. long; sepals spreading, linear- 

 oblong to oblong-elliptic, subacute, 1 -nerved, with the margins often somewhat 

 involute, 1.8-3.5 mm. long, 0.8-1.5 mm. wide; petals narrowly linear to filiform, 

 strongly recurved, 1.4-3 mm. long; lip uppermost in the flower, variable in shape, 

 cordate-deltoid to cordate-ovate or oblong-quadrate, 2-4 mm. long, 1.5-3 mm. 

 wide, cordate or auricled on each side at the base with the lobules broadly rounded 

 to acute and often deeply notched, obliquely tridentate at apex with the 2 lateral 

 teeth more or less elongate and obtuse to acute, the minute median tooth thickened 

 and apiculate: column minute, 0.5-1 mm. long, with 2 short apical lateral teeth; 

 capsule obliquely ovoid, 3-6 mm. long, 2-3 mm. in diameter. 



In low swampy woods, peaty or sandy soil or boggy areas, moist or wettish 

 wooded slopes along streams and in depressions of low woodlands, in e. Tex. 

 (Cherokee, Nacogdoches and Harris cos.), Mar.-July; Nfld. w. to Man., Minn., 

 Mo., Ark. and Tex., s. to Fla. and the Gulf Coast; Cuba, Jam. and Mex. 



Subclass 2. Dicotyledoneae 



Stem exogenous, of pith, wood and bark, the wood in one or more layers sur- 

 rounding a central pith, traversed by medullary rays, and covered by the bark 

 (endogenous in structure in Nymphaeaceae). Leaves usually pinnately or palmately 

 veined, the veinlets forming a network. Parts of the flower usually in fours or fives, 

 rarely in threes or sixes. Embryo of the seed with two cotyledons (one only in 

 Nymphaeaceae and some species of Ranunculaceae; in Quercus and a few other 

 genera 3 sometimes occur, and in some species of Amsinikia 4), the first leaves 

 of the germinating plantlet opposite. 



Dicotyledonous plants are first definitely known in Cretaceous time. They in- 

 clude more than 160,000 species and constitute nearly four fifths of all flowering 

 plants. 



Fam. 42. Saururaceae E. Mey. Lizard's-tail Family 



Erect or ascending more or less aromatic perennial herbs, usually rhizomatous 

 and stolonifcrous; stems jointed; leaves alternate, simple, usually petioled; stipules 

 adnate to petiole; flowers perfect, in congested or lax elongated spikes that may or 

 may not be subtended by an involucre; perianth none; pistils 3 or 4, indchiscent. 

 1 -seeded, free or united at the base; stamens as many as 8, free or adnate to ovary 

 at base or epigynous. the 2-cellcd anthers longitudinally dehiscent; fruit a some- 

 what succulent capsule, in ours dehiscing apically through the central-apical por- 

 tion of the folliclclikc capsule. 



A small family comprised of 5 genera and about 7 species in North America 

 and Asia. 



734 



