PONTEDERIACE^. (PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY.) 535 



many-flowered; flowers perfect ; sepals nearly free (Y long), ovate, becoming 

 Jance-ovate, with a short claw. — Grassy low grounds, Va. to Fla. and Ala. 

 ••- ••- Root bulbous; glands covering the base of the sepals. 



2. Z. elegans, Pursh. Stem 1-3^ high; leaves flat, carinate; raceme 

 simple or sparujgly branched and few-flowered ; bracts ovate-lanceolate ; base 

 of the perianth coherent with the base of the ovary, the thin ovate or obovate 

 sepals marked with a large obcordate gland, the inner abruptly contracted to a 

 broad claw. (Z. glaucus, Nutt.) — N. Eng. to N. 111., Minn., and westward. 



3. Z. Nuttallii, Gray. Like the last ; raceme rather densely flowered, 

 with narrow bracts ; perianth free ; sepals with an ill-defined gland at base, not 

 at all clawed ; seeds larger (3" long). — Kan. to Tex. and Col. 



* * Glands o/the perianth obscure; perianth small, rotate ; bulb somewhat Jibrous. 



4. Z. leimanthoides, Gray. Stem l - 4° high, slender ; leaves narrowly 

 linear; flowers small (4" in diameter) and numerous, in a few crowded panicled 

 racemes ; only a yellowish spot on the contracted base of the divisions of the 

 free perianth. — Low grounds, pine-barrens of N. J., to Ga. 



33. AMIANTHIUM, Gray. Fly-Poison. 



Flowers perfect. Perianth widely spreading ; the distinct and free petal-like 

 (white) sepals oval or obovate, without claws or glands, persistent. Filaments 

 capillary, equalling or exceeding the perianth. Anthers, capsules, etc., nearly as 

 in Melanthiura. Styles thread-like. Seeds wingless, oblong or linear, with a loose 

 coat, 1 -4 in eacn cell. — Glabrous, with simple stems from a bulbous base or 

 coated bulb, scape-like, few-leaved, terminated by a simple dense raceme of hand 

 some flowers, turning greenish with age. Leaves linear, keeled, grass-like. 

 (From oLfiiavros, unspotted, and &vBos, flower ; a name formed with more regard 

 to euphony than to good construction, alluding to the glandless perianth.) 



1. A. muscaetoxicum, Gray. (Fly-Poisox.) Leaves broad/// linear, 

 elongated, o])tuse (^ - 1' wide) ; raceme simple ; capsule abruptly 3-horned ; seeds 

 oblong, with a fleshy red coat. — Open woods, N. J. to Fla., west to Ky. and 

 Ark. June, July. 



Order 117. PONTEDERlACE^. (Pickerel-weed Family.) 



Aquatic herbs, with perfect more or less irregular floivers from a spathe ; 

 the petcd-like 6-merous perianth free from the 3-celled ovary ; the 3 or 6 

 mostly unequal or dissimilar stamens inserted in its throat. — Perianth Avitli 

 (the 6 divisions colored alike, imbricated in 2 rows in the bud, the whole 

 together sometimes re volute-coiled after flowering, then withering away, 

 or the base thickened-persistent and enclosing; the fruit. Anthers in- 

 trorse. Ovules anatropous. Style 1 ; stigma 3-lobed or 6-toothed. Fruit 

 a perfectly or incompletely 3-celled many-seeded capsule, or a 1 -celled 

 1 -seeded utricle. Embryo slender, in floury albumen. 



1. Pontederia. Spike many-flowered. Perianth 2-lipped, its fleshy persistent base en- 



closing the 1-seeded utricle. Stamens 6. 



2. Heteranthera. Spathe 1 - few-flowered. Perianth salver-sliaped. Stamens 3. Cap 



sule maiu'-seeded. 



