SMILAX FAIVIILY 



459 



1. SMILAX L. Sp. PI. 1028. 1753. 



Rootstock usually large and tuberous. Stems usually twining and climbing by means of 

 the spirally coiling tendril-like appendages of the petioles. Lower leaves reduced to scales ; 

 the upper entire or lobed. Pedicels borne on the enlarged globose or conic summit of the 

 peduncle, inserted in small pits, generally among minute bractlets. Pistillate flowers usually 

 smaller than the staminate, with an ovary and usually 1-6 abortive stamens. Staminate 

 flowers without an ovar}'. Perianth-segments deciduous. Stamens insi'^.rted on the bases 

 of the perianth-segments. Berry black, red or purple, rarely white, with 3 strengthening bands 

 of tissue running through the outer part of the pulp, connected at the base and apex. Embryo 

 \ymg under a tubercle at the upper end of the seed. [Ancient Greek name, perhaps not orig- 

 inally applied to these plants.] 



About 225 species widely distributed, most abundant in tropical America and Asia. Besides the following 

 there are about 22 species in the eastern and southern United States. Type species, Smilax aspera L. 



1. Smilax californica (A. DC.) A. Gra}'. 

 California Smilax. Fig. 1125. 



SmUa.v rotundifolia californica A. DC. Monog. Phaner. 1 ; 

 75. 1878. 



Smilax californica A. Grav; S. Wats. Bot. Calif. 2: 186. 

 1880. 



Stem woody, terete or somewhat angled, more 

 or less covered with slender straight spreading 

 brownish prickles, sometimes nearly or quite 

 naked. Leave? broadly ovate, 5-10 cm. long, 25 - 

 70 mm. wide, abruptly acute and apiculate at apex, 

 sub-cordate at base, rather thin, glabrous, decidu- 

 ous : petioles 10-15 mm. long; peduncles slender, 

 flat, 2-5 cm. long ; pedicels 8-20, 6-8 mm. long ; 

 staminate flowers with ligulate perianth-segments 

 about 5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide ; widely spread- 

 ing and recurved from below the middle ; stamens 

 3 mm. long; l)erry black, 6 mm. in diameter. 



Stream banks, climbing bushes and small trees often to 

 a height of several feet. Upper Sonoran and Transition 

 Zones: southern Oregon to Butte County, California. Type 

 locality: near Chico, California. 



Family 21. AMARYLLIDACEAE. 



Amaryllis Family. 



Perennial herbs or some tropical species woody and arboreous, with bulbs or 

 rootstocks. scapose or sometimes leafy stems and narrow and entire leaves, or, 

 in ours, thick and often spiny-toothed. Flowers perfect, regular or nearly .so. 

 Perianth O-parted or 6-lobed, the segments distinct or united below, into a tube 

 adnate to the ovary. Stamens 6, inserted on the bases of the perianth-segments, or 

 in the throat opposite the lobes. Anthers versatile or basifixed, 2-celled, the sacs 

 usually longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary wholly or partly inferior, usually 3-celled. 

 Style filiform, entire. 3-lobed, or divided into 3 stigmas at the summit. Ovules 

 numerous, rarely only 1 or 2 in each cavity, anatropous. Fruit capsular, rarely 

 fleshy. Seeds generally black, the embryo small, enclosed in fleshy endosperm. 



About 70 genera and 800 si)ecies, principally natives of tropical and subtropical regions. 



1. AGAVE L. Sp. PI. 323. 1753. 



Short-stemmed or usually acaulescent perennial from a thick fibrous-rooted crown. 

 Leaves clustered, thick, rigid and fleshy, spiny pointed and entire or often spiny tufted. 

 Flowers numerous, spicate or paniculate upon a tall bracteate woody scape. Pedicels short, 

 jointed. Iiracteate. Perianth 6-cleft, the tube tulmlar or campanulate, thick, fleshy and some- 

 what persistent, the lobes valvate similar and nearly equal. Stamens adnate to the perianth 

 tube, geniculately inflexed in the bud, at length exserted ; anthers linear, versatile, style 

 stout and elongated ; stigma thickened ; capsule coriaceous, with numerous flattened hori- 

 zontal black seeds. 



An American genus of about 100 species, chiefly Mexican. Type species, Agave americana L. 



Flower clusters about 4-flowered, racemosely distributed on the main flower stalk. 1. A. utaheusis. 



Flower clusters many-flowered terminating the branches of the panicle. 



Apparently acaulescent, the stout trunk subterranean; stamens inserted at the mouth of the tube. 

 Ovary flask-shaped, scarcely longer than the perianth-segments. 2. A. deserti. 



Ovary fusiform, about twice as long as the segments. 3. A. coitsociata. 



Caulescent, forming a leafy ellijisoid head; stamens inserted at the middle of the tube. 



4. A. shawii. 



