MONOCOTYLEDONS. 21 



S. SERRULATA B. & H. Saw Palmetto. Steiiis creeping widely, 

 often covering spaces 20 ft. in diameter ; leaves bright green ; petiole 

 plano-convex in cross-section, toothed on the edges ; spadix much 

 shorter than the leaves, densely tomentose ; style slender ; drupe 

 ovoid or oblong, black, |-| in. long. May-July. On sandy soil 

 near the coast. 



III. RAPHIDOPHYLLA. 



Stem short, thick, erect; leaves long-petioled, fan-shaped, 

 deeply palmately divided, without filaments in the sinuses ; 

 sheath persistent, soon dry and net-like, with numerous strong, 

 erect, black spines; spadix branched, densely flowered; spathes 

 2-4-leaved; flowers yellowisli, bracted ; calyx 3-cleft ; petals 

 distinct ; stamens 6-9, united at the base ; ovaries 3, more or 

 less united ; drupes 1-3, 1-seeded. 



R. HYSTRix W. & D. Blue Palmetto. Stem short, erect, often 

 proliferous; leaves triangular, fan-shaped to orbicular, very deeply 

 cleft, the divisions 2-4:-toothed, blue-glaucous ; petioles mostly longer 

 than the leaves, triangular in cross-section, rough-edged above ; spadix 

 small, short-peduncled, widely branched, 6-12 in. long ; spathes 

 woolly, partial spathes none; fruit an ovoid drupe, ^-| in. long. 

 June-July. Low, shady woods. Central Mississippi to South Caro- 

 lina and southward. 



7. ARACEJE. ARUM FAMILY. 



Perennial herbs, mostly acaulescent, growing from a corm 

 or a creeping rootstock; juice acrid; leaves simple or com- 

 pound, usually long-petioled and netted-veined, but sometimes 

 strap-shaped and parallel-veined ; flowers on a spadix, gener- 

 ally enclosed in a spathe, usually the staminate above and 

 the pistillate below, but in some species perfect or dioecious ; 

 calyx and corolla wanting or the former of 4-6 small scales ; 

 stamens 4-10, short; ovary 1-several-celled, 1-several'Ovules 

 in each cell; stigma sessile; fruit indehiscent, a berry or 

 utricle. 



I. ARISJEMA. 



Corms very acrid, black ; leaves usually 1-3, i)almately 

 divided ; i)etioles long and sheathing the scape which bears 



