H^MODORACEJE. (l$LOOL>WORT FAMILY.) -iG'J 



, 2. H. juncea, Smith. Sparingly hairy ; leaves filiform ; scapes 1 -3, fili- 

 form, I -2-fiowered J brads bristle-like, shorter than the villous pedicels ; divis- 

 ions of the perianth oblong, the three exterior ones greenish and hairy without; 

 partitions of the capsule vanishing at maturity ; seeds black, minutely pitted. 

 (H nlifolia, Ell.) — Low pine barrens, Florida and the lower districts of Ceor- 

 gia, and westward. March and April. — Scape 4'- 9' long, at length procum- 

 bent. Flowers 9" - 12" wide. 



Order 145. H^EMODORACEiE. (Bloodwort Family.) 



Perennial fibrous-rooted herbs, with leafy or scape-like stems, mostly 

 equitant and sword-shaped leaves, and regular woolly or scurfy flowers. 

 — Perianth tubular, 6-cleft, more or less cohering with the 3-celled ovary. 

 Stamens :3 or 6 : anthers adnate, introrse, 2-celled. Ovules mostly few, 

 anatropous or amphitropous, attached to the central placenta?. Styles 3, 

 united, deciduous, or persistent and separating: stigma entire. Capsule 

 enclosed in the persistent perianth, loculicidally 3-valved at the apex. 

 Embryo small, in hard albumen. 



Synopsis. 



1. LACHNANTHES. Perianth woolly : stamens 3 : style deciduous : flowers cymose : stem 



leafy. 

 2 LOPIIIOLA. Perianth woolly: stamens 6: style persistent: flowers corymbose: stem 



leafy. 

 3. ALETKIS. Perianth scurfy : stamens 6 : style persistent : flowers spiked : stem scape-like. 



1. LACHNANTHES, Ell. 



Perianth woolly without, 6-lobed ; with the exterior lobes smaller ; the tube ad- 

 nate to the ovary. Stamens 3, slender, exserted, opposite the interior lobes of 

 the perianth : anthers linear. Style filiform, declined, deciduous : stigma entire. 

 Capsule globose, 3-angled. Seeds amphitropous, few, thin, orbicular, concave, 

 fixed by the middle to the thick globose placentae. — A leafy-stemmed plant, 

 with orange-colored juice. 



1. L. tinetoria, Ell. Root red, fibrous ; stem mostly simple, villous above ; 

 leaves linear-sword-shaped, smooth, the lower ones crowded and equitant, the 

 others smaller and remote ; flowers 2-ranked, crowded in lateral and terminal 

 compound woolly cymes, yellow within ; exterior lobes of the perianth linear ; 

 valves of the capsule separating from the placentae ; seeds black. — Ponds and 

 ditches, Florida, and northward. July -Sept. — Stem 2°-3° high. Leaves 

 1°- l£° long. Flowers £' long. Bracts linear. 



2. LOPHIOLA, Ker. 



Perianth woolly without, and at the throat within, nearly equally 6-lobed, 

 spreading ; the tube adnate to the lower half of the ovary. Stamens 6, slender : 

 40 



