484 DIOSCOREACEJE. (YAM FAMILY.) 
Order 119. DIOSCOREACEiE. (Yam Family.) 
Plants with twining stems from large tuberous roots or 
knotted rootstocks, and ribbed and netted-veined pelioled 
leaves, small dioecious 6-androus and regular flowers, with 
the deleft calyx-like perianth adherent in the fertile plant 
to the 3- celled ovary. Styles 3, distinct . — Ovules 1 or 2 
m each cell, anatropous. Fruit usually a membranaceous 
3-angled or winged pod. Seeds with a minute embryo 
in hard albumen. — Represented chiefly by the genus 
1* DIOSCOREA, Plumier. Yam. 
Flowers very small, in axillary panicles or racemes. Stamens 
6, at the base of the divisions of the 6-parted perianth. Pod 3- 
celled, 3-winged, loculicidally 3-valved by splitting through the 
winged angles. Seeds 1 or 2 in each cell, flat, with a membra¬ 
naceous wing. (Dedicated to the Greek naturalist Dioscondes.) 
1. 1>. Villosa, L. (Wild Yam-root.) Herbaceous; leaves 
most y alternate, sometimes nearly opposite or in fours, more or less 
owny underneath, heart-shaped, conspicuously pointed, 9-11-rib* 
bed; flowers pale greenish-yellow, the sterile in drooping panicles, 
the fertile in drooping simple racemes. — Thickets, New England to 
Wisconsin, common southward. July. — A slender vine, twining 
over bushes. Pods f' long. 
Order 120. SMIL,ACE M. (Smilax Family.) 
Herbs, or climbing shrubby plants, with ribbed and con¬ 
spicuously netted-veiny leaves, regular 6 - 10 -androus flow¬ 
ers with the 6 - 10 -leaved perianth free from the 3 - 5 -ceBed 
ovary ; the styles or sessile stigmas as many and distinct. 
Anthers introrse. Fruit a few-many-seeded berry. Em¬ 
bryo minute, in hard albumen.—Comprises two marked 
suborders, viz. 
Suborder I. TRUE SMILACEAk The Smilax Fam. prop. 
Flowers dkecious or perfect, axillary, the perianth uniform. Styles 
nearly wanting. Seeds orthotropous or amphitropous, 1 - 2 in each 
cell. Chiefly shrubby : leaves alternate. 
