LiLiACEit:. (lily family.) 517 



quite down to the micropyle, the persistent seed-stalk thus forming a sort of 

 lateral beak. Radicle inferior ! — Stemless small herbs, with grassy and hairv 

 linear leaves and slender few-flowered scapes, from a solid bulb. (An old 

 name for a plant having sourish leaves, from viro^vs, suh-acid.) 



1. H. erecta, L. Leaves linear, grass-like, longer than the uml)ellatelv 

 1 -4-flowered scape; divisions of the perianth hairy and greenish outside, yel- 

 low within. — Meadows and open Avoods, N. Eng. to Fla., west to Minn., E. Kan., 

 and Tex. 



Order 115. DIOSCOREACE^^. (Yam Family.) 



Plants ivith twining stems from large tuberous roots or knotted rootstocks, 

 and ribbed and netted-veined petioled leaves, small dioecious G-androus and 

 regular Jiowers, loith the G-cleft calyx-like perianth adherent in the fertile 

 plant to the ^-celled ovary. Styles 3, distinct. — Ovules 1 or 2 in each cell, 

 anatropous. Fruit usually a membranaceous 3-angled or winged capsule. 

 Seeds with a minute embryo in hard albumen. 



1. DIOSCOREA, Plumier. Yam. 



Flowers very small, in axillary panicles or racemes. Stamens 6, at the l)ase 

 '^f the divisions of the 6-parted perianth. Capsule 3-celled, 3-winged, loculi- 

 cidally 3-valved by splitting through the winged angles. Seeds 1 or 2 in each 

 cell, flat, with a membranaceous wing. (Dedicated to the Greek naturalist, 

 Dioscorides.) 



1. D. villbsa, L. (^VILD Yam-root.) Herbaceous. Stems slender, from 

 knotty and matted rootstocks, twining over bushes ; leaves mostly alternate, 

 sometimes nearly opposite or in fours, more or less downy beneath, heart- 

 shaped, conspicuously pointed, 9-11-ribbed; flowers pale greenish-yellow, the 

 sterile in drooping panicles, the fertile in drooping simple racemes; capsules 

 8 - 10" long. — Thickets, S. New Eng. to Fla., west to Minn., Kan., and Tex. 



Order ]16. LILiAcE^. (Lily Family.) 



Herbs, or rarely woody plants, with regular and symmetrical almost ahcays 

 Ci-androus floivers ; the perianth not glumaceous, free from the chiejly Z- 

 celled ovary ; the stamens one before each of its divisions or lobes (i. e. 6, in 

 one instance 4), ?/.'«77? 2-celled ai-ithers ; fruit a few -many-seeded pod or 

 berry : the sjnall embryo enclosed in copious albumen. Seeds anatropous 

 or am])hitropons (orthotropous in Smilax). Flowers not from a spathe, 

 except in Allium; the outer and inner ranks of the perianth colored 

 alike (or nearly ?o) and generally similar, except in Trillium. 



SrBOHDKH I Smilacefe. Shrubby or rarely herbaceous, the petiole 

 of the 3 - 9-nerved netted-veined leaves often tendril-bearing. Flowers (in 

 ours) dioecious, in axillary umbels, small, with regular 6-parted deciduous 

 perianth. Anthers apparently 1-celled. Stigmas 3, sessile. Fruit a 

 3-celled berry, with 1-2 pendulous orthotropous seeds in each cell 

 Embryo minute in horny albumen. 

 1. Smilax. Cliaracters as above. 



