402 MELANTHACEAE. 
1. Helonias bullata L. Swamp Pink. 
(Fig. 971.) 
Helonias bullata ¥,. Sp. Pl. 342. 
Leaves several or numerous, dark green, thin, 
clustered at the base of the scape, 6’-15’ long, 
4/-2/ wide, pointed or blunt, finely parallel- 
nerved. Scape stout, bracted below, the bracts 
lanceolate, acute or acuminate, membranous; 
raceme dense, 1/-3/ long in flower, becoming 
4’-7’ long in fruit; perianth-segments about 3’’ 
long, equalling or rather longer than the stout 
pedicels; capsules about 3’’ long, the valves 
papery; seeds 114’/-2’” long. 
In bogs, northern New Jersey, southern New 
York and eastern Pennsylvania (?) to Virginia. 
Local. The scape sometimes bears a few leaves 
at its base. 
5- CHAMAELIRIUM Willd. Mag. Nat. Fr. Berl. 2: 18. 1808. 
An erect glabrous slightly fleshy herb, with a bitter tuberous rootstock. Basal leaves 
spatulate, those of the stem lanceolate. Flowers small, white, dioecious, in a long narrow 
bractless spike-like raceme. Perianth of 6 linear-spatulate 1-nerved segments. Staminate 
flowers with 6 stamens, the filaments filiform, the anthers subglobose, 2-celled; pistillate 
flowers with a 3-celled oblong ovary, 3 short styles, stigmatic along the inner side, and usu- 
ally with 6 staminodia. Capsule oblong, slightly 3-lobed, loculicidally 3-valved. 
12 in each cavity, broadly winged at both ends, narrowly winged on the sides. 
signifying a low lily.] 
A monotypic genus of eastern North America. 
1. Chamaelirium luteum (L.) A. 
Gray. Blazing-star. (Fig. 972.) 
Veratrum luteum V. Sp. Pl. 1044. _ 1753. 
Chamaelirium Carolinianum Willd. Mag. Nat. Fr. 
Berl. 2:19. 1808. 
Chamaelirium luteum A, Gray, Man. 503. 1848. 
Staminate plant 114°-2%° tall, the pistillate 
often taller, sometimes 4° high and more leafy. 
Basal leaves 2/’-S’ long, 14/-11'4’ wide, mostly 
obtuse, tapering into a long petiole; stem leaves 
lanceolate, the or upper linear, acute or acum- 
inate, sessile or the lower short-petioled; stam- 
inate raceme or nodding finally erect, 3/-9’ long, 
the pedicels spreading, 1’’-2’’ long; pistillate 
raceme erect; flowers nearly 3’’ broad; capsule 
oblong or somewhat obovoid, 4/’/-7’’ long, 
2//-3’’ in diameter. 
In moist meadows and thickets, Massachusetts to 
southern Ontario and Michigan, south to Florida 
and Arkansas. Called also Devil’s-bit, Unicorn-root 
and Drooping Starwort. May-July. 
6. CHROSPERMA Raf. Neog. 3. 
[AMIANTHIUM A. Gray, Ann. Lyc. N. Y. 4: 121. X 
An erect glabrous herb, with an ovoid-oblong coated bulb, and numerous long blunt 
basal leaves, a few short ones on the stem. 
Flowers perfect, white, in a dense terminal 
raceme, the lower ones first expanding. Perianth of 6 distinct glandless persistent obtuse 
segments. Stamens inserted on the bases of the sepals; anthers small, reniform. Ovary 
ovoid, 3-lobed, 3-celled. Capsule 3-celled, dehiscent above the middle, the cavities 1-2- 
seeded, its 3 divergent lobes tipped with the subulate styles. 
(Greek, referring to the colored seeds. ] 
A monotypic genus of eastern North America. 
Seeds ovoid, reddish brown. 
