NAT. ORDER. 



Liliacecc. 



ALETRIS FARINOSA. STAR GRASS, 



Class VI. Hexandria. Orda- I. Monogynia. 



Gen. Char. Corolla tubulous-ovate, six-cleft at the summit, rugose, 

 persistent. Slamcns inserted into the base of the segments. 

 Style triangular, separable into three. Capsule opening at the 

 top, three-celled, many-seeded. 



Spe. Cliar. Fhiwers pedicellate, oblong-tubular. Corolla when de- 

 caying, nearly smooth. Leaves broad lanceolate. 



The root is perennial, small, crooked, branched, externally black- 

 ish and internally brown ; the leaves are sessile, lanceolate, entire, 

 pointed, very smooth, longitudinally veined, and of unequal size, the 

 largest being about six inches in length ; from the middle of the 

 leaves a flower-stem rises to the height of one or two feet, nearly 

 naked, witli remote scales, which sometimes become leaves. It ter- 

 minates in a slender scattered spike ; the Jloicers stand on very short 

 pedicels, and have minute bractes at the base ; the calyx is wanting ; 

 the corolla is tubular, oblong, divided at the summit into six spreading 

 segments, of a whitish color, and presenting, when old, a mealy or 

 rugose appearance o? the outside. 



The Abtris Farinosa is a native of this country, and is found 

 growing in almost all parts of the United States, in fields and on the 

 borders of woods, flowering in June and July. The likeness here 

 presented was taken by the author while residing in the middle part 

 of the slate of Massachusetts, some five years since, where Iw found 



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