32 LILIACEAE 



4-angled, occasionally glaucous, and bear as a rule a varying 

 number of scattered, short spines. The leaves, l]/2 to 5 inches 

 long by 1/2 to 4 inches w^ide, are mostly ovate or broadly lanceo- 

 late, though they vary from broadly ovate to nearly linear and 

 are sometimes a little constricted near the middle. They are 

 acute and often cuspidate at the tip, wedge shaped to broadly 

 cordate at the base, and smooth and toothless at the edges, 

 which turn under. The blade is smooth and either glaucous or 

 green above, but glaucous and densely papillose beneath, and has 

 3 or 5 strong nerves, 3 of which unite at the leaf tip. The 

 petioles are \^ x.o Yi inch long. 



Flowers appear in May or June in umbeled groups of 5 to 

 10 in leaf axils. Three to 5 flowers of each pistillate umbel 

 mature into bluish-black, bloom-covered berries ^4 to one-third 

 inch in diameter, each of which contains 1 to 3 mahogany-red 

 seeds. In this species the peduncles, Y^ to ly^ inches long, are 

 characteristically longer than the petioles. 



Distribution. — The Sawbrier is southern in its range, which 

 extends from Virginia westward into southern Illinois and 

 southward to Florida in the east and Texas in the west. In 

 Illinois, it occurs north to Lawrence County in the east and 

 Union County in the west, but intermediately does not come 

 north of the Ozarks. 



SMI LAX BONA-NOX Linnaeus 



Fringed Greenbrier 



The Fringed Greenbrier, fig. 3, is a large, high-climbing vine 

 with crooked stems, zigzag branches and deeply constricted 

 leaves. To.ward the base the stems are Y to y? inch in diameter, 

 rounded but usually with 1 prominent edge or angle, usually 

 covered by a thick, w^hite pubescence of stellate hairs, and beset 

 with scattered (3 to 8 per node) pubescent spines, 1 of which 

 in each internode is flat at the base and colored at the tip, 

 the others being straight or a little recurved and one-third to 

 ]/2 inch long. The branches are noticeably zigzag, angular and 

 spineless. Leaves on vigorous vines are ovate-hastate, dark 

 yellow green on both faces, 1 to 6 inches long by i/^ to 5 inches 

 wide and have rather thick blades with acute or cuspidate tips, 

 narrowed, truncate or cordate bases, and smooth or more or less 

 denticulate margins, which are colorless and thickened, though 



