MELANTHACEJE. (COLCHICUM FAMILY.) 503 
stamens. Styles linear-club-shaped, stigmatic along the inner side. 
Pod ovoid-oblong, not lobed, paper-like, Joeulicidally 3-valved 
from the apex, many-seeded. Seeds linear-oblong, conspicuously 
winged at each end. —A smooth herb with a wand-like stem from 
a (bitter) thick and abrupt tuberous rootstock, terminated by a lono 
and wand-like spiked raceme of small (yellowish) bractless flow°- 
ers: the fertile stems most leafy. Leaves flat, lanceolate, the 
lowest spatulate, tapering into a petiole. (Name composed of 
X^ai, on the ground, and Xeiptov, lily; of no obvious application.) 
hltcum. (Blazing-star.) (Veratrurn luteurn, L H e - 
mmas ‘utea, Jtit. H. dioica, Pursh.) — Low grounds. June.-Spike 
at length 6'-10* long. * 
12. TOFIELDIA, Hudson. False Asphodel. 
Flowers perfect, usually with a little 3-bracted involucre under¬ 
neath. Perianth more or less spreading; the sepals (white or 
greenish) concave, oblong or obovate, sessile. Filaments awl- 
shaped : anthers short, innate or somewhat introrse, 2-celled. 
Styles awl-shaped : stigmas terminal. Pod 3-angular, 3-partible 
or septicidal; the cells many-seeded. Seeds oblong. — Slender 
perennials, mostly tufted, with fibrous roots, simple scape-like 
stems leafy only at the base, bearing small flowers in a close ra¬ 
ceme or spike. Leaves 2-ranked, equitant, linear. (Named after 
Tojield, an English botanist of the last century.) — The following 
compose the subgenus Triantha, Nutt. : pedicels mostly in 
threes; the flowering proceeding from the apex downwards; 
seeds tail-pointed at both ends. 
1. T. glutinosa, Willd. Stem and pedicels very glutinous 
with blackish glands; leaves broadly linear, shoit. — Moist grounds, 
Maine (Robbins), Michigan, and Wisconsin (Lapham); common north¬ 
ward. June-Stem 1 ° high : flowers greenish-white. 
pnbeHS, Ait. Stem and pedicels roughened with mi¬ 
nute glands; leaves longer and narrower. — New Jersey, Knieskern, 
and southward. 
Order 123. JUJVCACE.ZE. (Rush Family.) 
Grass-like or sedge-like herbs , with jointed stems and a 
7 egular persistent perianth of 6 similar glumaceous sepals , 
6, or rarely 3, stamens with introrse anthers , and a 1-3- 
