336 SMILAX FAMILY. 



T^mus elepMntipes, or TestudinXria elaphantipes, of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, is a curiosity in conservatories ; the globular or hemispherical 

 trunk, resting on the ground, covered with very thick bark soon cracked into 

 separate portions, and resembling the back of a tortoise ; out of it spring every 

 year slender twining stems, bearing rounded heart-shaped or kidney-shaped leaves. 



1. DIOSCOREA, Yam, &c. (Named for Djosconc/es.) Flowers in axillary 

 panicles or racemes : stamens 6 in the sterile ones, separate. Fertile ones 

 producing a 3-celled 3-winged pod, when ripe splitting through the wings. 

 Fl. summer. Jl 



D. vill6sa. Wild Yam : sends up from a knotty rootstock its slender 

 stems, bearing heart-shaped pointed leaves, either alternate, opposite, or some 

 in fours, 9-11-ribbed and with prominent cross-veinlets. In thickets, com- 

 moner S. : slightly downy, or usually almost smooth, so that the specific name 

 is not a good one. 



D. Batatas (or D. Jap6nica of some), Chikese Yam : cult, from China 

 and Japan, for ornament, or for its very deep and long farinaceous roots, — 

 a substitute for potatoes, if one could only dig them ; with very smooth heart- 

 shaped partly halberd-shaped opposite leaves, and produces bulblets in the axils. 

 D. satlva, True Yam, with great thick roots, is only of hot climates. 



123. SMILACE^, SMILAX FAMILY. 



Chiefly woody-stemmed plants, a few herbaceous, climbing or 

 supported by a pair of tendrils on the sides of the petiole, having 

 ribbed and netted-veined leaves and small dioecious flowers, as in the 

 foregoing ; but the ovary is free from the perianth, bears mostly 3 

 long and diverging sessile stigmas, and in fruit is a berry ; the an- 

 thers are only 1-celled, opening by one longitudinal slit (the division 

 of the cell, if any, corresponding with the slit). Consists of the genus 



1. SMILAX, GREENBRIER, CATBRIER, or CHINA-BRIER. (An- 

 cient Greek name.) All wild species, in thickets and low grounds ; flowers 

 small, greenish, in clusters on axillary peduncles, in summer, or several of 

 the Southern prickly ones in spring. 



§ 1 . Stems woody, often prickly : ovules and seeds only one in each cell. 

 * Smooth, and the leaves often glossy, 5-9-ribbed: stiymas and cells of ovary 3. 



•1- Berries red : peduncles short: leaves 5-ril:bed: prickles hardly any. 

 S. lanceol^ta, from Virginia S. : climbs high ; leaves evergreen, lance- 

 ovate or lanceolate, acute at both ends ; rootstock tuberous. 



S. Walter!, from New Jersey S. : 6° high ; leaves deciduous, ovate or 

 lance-oval, roundish or slightly heart-shaped ; peduncles flat ; rootstock creeping. 

 •*- Beiries black, oflen with a bloom : leaves mostly roundish or somewhat heart- 

 shaped at base : peduncles almost always flat. 



S. rotundif61ia, Common Greenbrier. Yellowish-green, often high- 

 climbing ; branchlets more or less square, armed with scattered prickles ; leaves 

 ovate or round-ovate, thickish, green both sides, 2' -3' long; peduncles few- 

 flowered, not longer than the petioles. 



S. glatica. Mostly S. of New York : like the preceding, but less prickly, 

 the ovate leaves glaucous beneath and seldom at all heart-shaped, smooth-edged, 

 and peduncles longer than petiole. 



S. tamnoldes. New Jersey to 111. and S. : differs from preceding in the 

 leaves varying from round-heart-shaped to fiddle-shaped and halberd-shaped, 

 green both sides, pointed, and the edges often sparsely bristly. 



^. Pseudo-China, China-Brier ; from New Jersey and Kentucky S. : 

 rootstock tuberous ; prickles none or rare ; leaves ovate and heart-shaped, green 

 both sides, often contracted in the middle, and rough-ciliate, 3' - 5' long ; flat 

 peduncles 2' -3' long. 



