218 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



18. Polygonatum. Flowers white or greenish, cylindric, 6-lobed at 

 the summit, on mostly naked pedicels in axillary pedunculate 

 fascicles (sometimes solitary). Stamens on the tube ; anthers 

 linear-oblong, versatile. Style slender, deciduous ; stigma ob- 

 scurely 3-lobed. Ovules 1 to 3 pairs in each cell. Berry blue or 

 black ; cells 1-2-seeded. Stem erect or curved ; leaves sessile or 

 nearly so ; bracts caducous, minute. 



* * Perianth-segments distinct, small, spreading, persistent. 



19. Smilacina. Flowers white, trimerous, solitary (in our species), 



with minute scarious bracts, in a racemose panicle or simple ra- 

 ceme on an erect leafy stem. Stamens at the base ; filaments 

 subulate ; anthers short-oblong, versatile. Style short, thick, per- 

 sistent ; stigma 3-lobed. Ovules a pair in each cell. Berry 

 red or blue-black, 1-3-seecled. Leaves mostly sessile. 



20. Maianthemum. Flowers white, dimerous, solitary or fascicled, 

 in a simple raceme upon a low 2-3-leaved stem. Filaments fili- 

 form. Berry red. Leaves ovate- to lanceolate-cordate, mostly 

 petiolate. Otherwise as Smilacina. 



Tribe VII. Nolineae. Flowers very small, whitish, polygamo-dicecious, 

 on short jointed solitary or fascicled pedicels, in a simple or compound panicle 

 on a leafy stem from a thick woody caudex or rootstock : perianth campanu- 

 late ; segments 1-nerved : anthers ovate-cordate, versatile : stigmas very short, 

 distinct, sessile or on a short style : ovules b", in pairs at the base of the ovary : 

 fruit dry and thin, indehiscent or bursting irregularly, 1-3-celled, 1-3-seeded : 

 seed subglobose, with thin light-colored testa : leaves numerous, crowded, 

 narrowly linear, elongated, rigid, striate, with rough or armed margins. 



21. Nolina. Flowers polygamo-dioecious in a loosely racemose 

 simple or compound panicle ; segments oblong- ovate, usually 

 acutish. Stamens included. Stigmas sessile or nearly so. Fruit 

 rounded, deeply triquetrous, thin-membranous, 3-celled, 1-3- 

 seeded, bursting irregularly. Seeds ovate to globose. Leaves 

 unarmed. Naked caudex slender with a dilated base, or very 

 short or wanting. Fertile flowers mostly solitary and on longer 

 pedicels than the staminate. 



22. Dasylirion. Flowers dioecious in dense racemes forming a nar- 

 row compound panicle, the tall leafy flowering stem terminating 

 a stout naked cylindrical caudex. Perianth-segments oblong- 

 obovate, obtuse. Stamens exserted. Style short. Fruit trian- 

 gular and 3-winged, 1-celled, 1-seeded, coriaceous and indehiscent. 

 Seed obtusely triangular. Leaves usually armed with hooked 

 spines. Staminate flowers nearly sessile. 



