64: 



FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 



family consisting of three genera and over 200 species, most abundant 

 in tropical regions. It is well to explain here that the delicate little 

 trailing plant so widely cultivated for its foliage and sold by florists 

 under the name Srailax, is not a Smilax at all, l)ut belongs to the 

 genus Asparagus, of the lily family. The true Smilaxes are vines, 

 with woody or herbaceous, often prickly stems. They have broad 

 leaves which are an exception to the usual order of things in Mono- 

 cotyledonous plants in that they are netted-veined, with several par- 



riG. 46.--The wild false hemp (Agave sisalana) showing habit of growth. After photograph 

 by Mr. G. N. Collins at Sugar Loaf Key. Florida. 



allel primary nerves. The petiole bears tendrils to enable the plant 

 to climb. The flowers are small and greenish, in axillary umbels,* 

 and are strictly dioecious. They have a regular perianth consissing of 

 six segments, and are succeeded by globose berries. SmiJax herhacea, 

 (see Fig. 45) another common species of the eastern United States, is 

 known as the carrion flower from the disg-usting odor which it exhales 

 when in bloom. The roots of several tropical species yield the drug 

 known as sarsaparilla, while the same portions of other species are 

 used in China for food. 



*An umbel is a flower-cluster in which the pedicels or Hower sitalki all proceed 

 Trom the same point, as in t,he carrot and related plauti. 



