£38 BEXANDPwIA. TRIGYNIA. 



Kos. 2 and 3 are indig-enous to Europe as well as Ame- 

 rica; there is also 1 species at the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and 2 of doubtful genus in Peru . 



351. *GYROMIA.t Medeola. L. (Indian Cu- 

 cumber.) 



Corolla 6-parted, revolute. Calix none. Fila- 

 ments and anthers distinct. Styles none; stigmas 

 3, filiform and divaricate, united at tlie base. 

 Berry 3-celied, cells 5 or G-seeded. Seeds com- 

 IH-essed, 3-sided. 



Root an oblong fleshy tuber; stem simple, erect; leaves 

 veitici Hated; flowers terminal ag-^reg-ate. 



Species. 1. G. vir^inica. (Jailed " Indian Cucumber" 

 from a far fetched idea of resemblance either in tlte form 

 or flavour of the root. Germ and berry always many-seed- 

 ed, the latter dark purple wlien ripe; stigmas long-, fili- 

 form, horizontally divaricated, almost imperceptibly glan- 

 dular, and grooved on the upper side. Stem with a single 

 sheath near the base, deciduously lanuginous. Leaves ver- 

 ticillated in the middle of the stem, 6 tp 9, elliptic-lanceo- 

 late, acuminate; at the summit of the stem in 3s, very 

 rarely and then unequally in 4s, oval-lanceolate. Flowers 

 aggregated from 3 to 6. 



^. * picta. Floral leaves in 5s or 6s, oval acute, crim- 

 son-red near the base; flowers numerous, 9 to 12; berries 

 tuberous, many -seeded, (12 to 15.)— Hab. On the shady 

 banks of Laurel creek, near Morgantown, North Carolina. 

 I have given it merely as a variety, riot being in posses- 

 sion of satisfactory specimens, seeing it merely in fruit. 



A North American genus, confining Medeola to the 2 

 African species which are said to have a berry of 5 seeds. 

 The present genus, with a berry of 3 cells and many 

 seeds, approaches consequently to Trillium and Paris. 



f From ywfof, a circhy in reference to its verticillated leaves; 

 a habit which lead the celebrated A. L. Jussieu justly to doubt of 

 its genuine affinity with ihe 2 African species of Medeola upon 

 which the genus has been evidently founded, having a berry 

 containing 3 cordate seeds. Changes of names, though doubtless 

 unwelcome, must in these cases continue to be adopted, so long 

 as we shall be inclined to prefer truth to error. Michaux has 

 long ago asserted that the Medeola asparugoides did not belong 

 to the same genus as <M. vivjinica, without, howevec, pointings 

 out adi8tinction.. 



