HEXANDKIA. MONOGYNIA. 219 



Caudex sometimes ligneous and ascending; leaves radi- 

 cal, or comose, rigid, and channelled, with the point and 

 often the margin spiny, younger leaves obvolute, or rolled 

 around each other spirally; panicle ascending from the 

 caudex, very large and pyramidal. A genus scarcely dif- 

 fering generically from Moe except in the situation of the 

 capsule, whici) is inferior. 



Species. \. \. virginica. From Virginia to Florida, 

 also in Upper Louisiana. 



An American genus, chiefly tropical. ^. americana is 

 probably the largest of all herbaceous plants, its panicles 

 of flowers are of the magnitude of small trees. In Peru 

 and Mexico it has long been cultivated by the indigenes 

 and colonists for various and important economical pur- 

 poses. It affords an abundant vinous liquor and by dis- 

 tillation alkohol, of the fibres of its enormous leaves are 

 made thread and paper, &c. 



520. HEMEROCALLIS. L. (Day Lily.) 



Corolla campanulate; tube cylindric. Stami- 

 na declinate. Stigma rather small, simple, and 

 partly villous. 



Roots fasciculated; scape corymbose. 



Species. 1. H. fulva. Leaves broad linear, carinate, 

 petals flat and acute, nerves of the petals undivided. 

 Win.D. Sp. 2. p. l9r. Naturalized in moist meadows 

 around Philadelphia, and also in secluded situations on 

 the banks of the Schuylkill. I have introduced it into 

 the American Flora to mark its future progress, which is 

 already such, as easily to impose upon a stranger for aa 

 indigenous plant. 



The H.flava and H. p^aminea, are said to be natives of 

 Siberia, and H. fulva of the Levant; there are also 3 

 other species of this genus indigenous to Japan. 



321. PHALANGIUM. Tournejort. 



Corolla of 6 petals, spi-eadin,^. Filaments 

 naked or smooth. Capsule ovate. Seeds angular. 



Roots often fibrose or fasciculate. Leaves flat. Flow- 

 ers mostly white or purplish. 



Species. 1. P. esculentum. T. N. in Fras. Catal. 1813. 

 Scilla esculenta. Bot, Mag. 1596. P. Quamash, Purgh, 

 Flor. Am. 1. p. 226. In the spring of the year 1810, I 

 discovered this plant near the confluence of Huron river 

 and Lake Erie, I have since found it abundantly in alluvial 



