502 MELANTHACEJE. (COLCHICUM FAMILY.) 
XEROPHl LLUIfl, Michx. Xerophyllum. 
Flowers perfect. Perianth widely spreading ; sepals petal-like 
(white), oval, distinct, sessile, not glandular, at length withering, 
about the length of the awl-shaped filaments. Anthers 2-celled, 
short. Styles thread-like, stigmatic down the inner side. Pod 
globular-3-lobed, obtuse (small), loculicidal, the valves bearing the 
partitions. Seeds 2 in each cell, collateral, 3-angled, not margin- 
Stem simple, from a somewhat bulbous base, bearing a 
simple dense raceme of showy white flowers, thickly beset with 
needle-shaped leaves, the upper reduced to bristle-like bracts; 
those from the root very many in a dense tuft, reclined, 1° or more 
long, 1 wide below, rough on the margin, remarkably dry and 
rigid (whence the name, from [-rjpos , arid , and <j)v\\ov , leaf). 
1- X. aspliodcloades, Nutt. Bracts none, except for the 
lower flowers; bractlets 1 or 2 on the slender pedicels. (X. setifbli- 
um, Michx. Helonias asph., L.) — Pine barrens of New Jersey. 
June. —A singular plant, like an Asphodel, l°-4° high. 
10. HELONIAS, L. Helonias. 
Flowers perfect. Perianth of 6 spatulate-oblong (greenish- 
white) sepals, persistent, shorter than the thread-like filaments. 
Anthers 2-celled, roundish-oval, blue. Styles revolute, stigmatic 
down the inner side. Pod obcordately 3-lobed, loculicidally 3- 
valved, the valves deeply and divergently 2-lobed. Seeds many 
in each cell, linear, with a tapering appendage at both ends. — A 
smooth perennial, with many inversely lanceolate or oblong-spatu- 
late flat leaves, from a tuberous rootstock, producing in early spring 
a hollow naked scape (1°- 2° high), sheathed with broad bracts at 
the base, and terminated by a simple and short dense raceme. 
Bracts obsolete : pedicels shorter than the flowers. (Name doubt¬ 
less from eXoy, a swamp; the place of growth.) 
1- H. bullata, L. (H. latifolia, Michx.) — New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania; rare. May. 
11. CHAM^LIRIIJ]!!, Willd. Devil’s-bit. 
Flowers dioecious. Perianth of 6 spatulate-linear (yellowish- 
white) spreading sepals, withering-persistent. Filaments and 
(yellow) anthers as in Helonias: fertile flowers with rudimentary 
