175-2 
broad and netted veined! J/nxflorescence single, terminal, sessile, or pedunculated ; 
flowers large, white or purple, sometimes marked. Feéa/s 3, larger than the sepals, 
withering ; sepals 3, foliaceous, lanceolate, and spreading, persistent. Stamens 6; 
filaments short; anthers elongated, linear, adnate and introrse; ced/s 2, opening 
by a lateral, longitudinal fissure; fo//en more or less globular, echinated. Ovary 
pyriform, 3-6 angled; s¢yles 3, distinct down to the ovary, awl-shaped, recurved 
or spreading, persistent, stigmatic upon their faces. /uzt baccate, 3-celled. Seeds 
horizontal, a number in each cell, ovoid, with a tumid raphe; eméryo minute; albu- 
men dense, sarcous. 
Rafinesque, in his Medical Flora, made a grand revision of this genus, naming 
no less than 1g species, and 68 varieties, including 14 other species, and consti- 
tuting 3 sub-genera; but Prof. Gray, in his Lessons and Manual, allows but 8 
species and 2 varieties in the Northern States. 
LILIACEA.—This large order of beautiful plants has representatives in all 
portions of the globe. It consists of herbs or sometimes woody plants springing 
from bulbs, tubers, or a fascicle of fibrous roots. Leaves simple, clasping at the 
base. erianth not glumaceous, free from the ovary ; flowers 6-androus, regular, 
and symmetrical; sepa/s and petals generally colored alike (Exc. Trillium); s/a- 
mens 6, one at each division of the perianth; anthers 2-celled, introrse. Ovary 
3-celled, free; styles united (Exc. Trillium); stigmas generally 3-lobed; ovules 
anatropous or amphitropous. /yu7t a capsule or berry; seeds few or many in 
each cell; eméryo minute; a/éumen sarcous. 
This important family has been divided by botanists generally, into three, 
viz., Melanthacee, Liliacee, and Smilacee; other divisions have also been made. 
It will, however, answer best for us to speak of the drugs and useful plants here, 
under the headings as tribes or suborders, to agree with the general plan of the 
work as begun—z. ¢., according to Prof. Gray's North American Botany. The 
useful plants of the Melanthacee are: The European white hellebore, Veratrum 
album, Linn.; the Mexican and West Indian Sabadilla, Veratrum Sabadilla, Retz. 
(Asa Grae officinalis, Lindl., Schenocaulon officinale, Gray); the Mexican Helomas 
officinalis, Don (Veratrum officinale, Schl.), spoken of as a plant also furnishing 
cebadilla seeds, is accounted by Fliickiger and Hanbury to be synonymous — 
V. Sabadilla, The root of the poisonous saveja of the Mexicans, He/onias frigida, 
Lindl. (Veratrum frigida, Schl), appears to exactly resemble that of V. a/dum; 
the rhizomes of Veratrum nigrum, Linn., an Austrian species, are said to be sub- 
stituted for white hellebore.+ The narcotic poison Helonias erythrosperma, Michx. 
(Melanthium muscetoxicum, W alt.), is said to be used in the Southern States as 
an insecticide, Concerning this property, Porcher says,t{ the insects are only stupe- 
fied, and are generally burned in that state by housewives. The Indian cucumber, 
Medeola Virginica, Linn., has been used as a diuretic; Melanthium Virginicum, 
W., is an irritant poison, formerly used as an application in itch. The meadow 
Saenger 
* Fliick. & Han. Pharmacographia, p. 695. 
nc pulbee 
_ f Resourc. South. Field and For., p. $27. 
