NAT. ORDER. 



TrilliacecE. 



TRILLIUM SESSILE. VIRGINIA TURNIP. 



Class VI. Hexandria. Order HI. Trigynia. 



Gen. Char. Calyx, three-leaved. Corolla, three-petalled, Stig- 

 ma, sessile. Berry, superior, three-celled. Cells, many- 

 seeded. 



Sj^e. Char. Peduncle, inclined. Flower, nodding. Petals, ovate, 



acuminate, flat, spreading ; broader, and a little longer than 



the calyx. Leaves, broad-rhomboid, acuminate, sessile. 



This species of turnip has a tuberous, perennial root, which 



sends up in the spring a large, colored spathe, flattened and bent 



at the top, like a hood, and supported by an erect, purplish scape ; 



the spathe has within it a club-shaped spadix, variegated, round at 



the end ; at the base it is surrounded by the stamens, the female 



organs being below the male ; the spathe, spadix and ger?ns are 



converted into a bunch of scarlet berries ; the leaves stand on long, 



sheathing footstalks, and are composed of leaflets, paler beneath 



than on their upper surface, and in time becoming glaucous. 



Of this genus there are several species, all of which are na- 

 tives of North America. They have been described by Miller, 

 in his Gardener s Dictionary, under the head of American Herb 

 Paris ; but the Paris and Trillium, though somewhat similar 

 in the style of their foliage, are very different in their parts of 

 fructification. This species takes its trivial name of sessile, from 

 the flowers ha\'ing no footstalks, but sitting, as it were, immediately 

 on the end of the stalk. 



Vol. ii— no 



