CHAP. CXV. 



/SMILA CEJE. 



2509 



tt 1. C. SRicoi^DES. The Erica-like Ceratiola. 



Identification. Michx. Fl. Bor. Amer 

 Pursh FI. Amer. Sept., 1. t. 13. 



Spec. Char., Src Flowers in the axils 

 of the upper leaves, solitary, except 

 a small abortive one by the side of 

 the principal flower. 



Description, Sfc. An upright much 

 branched shrub, greatly resembling a 

 heath, and varying from 2 ft. to 8 ft. 

 high. Branches subverticillate, erect, 

 and marked with the remains of the 

 petioles of the fallen leaves. The 

 upper and younger branches retain 

 their leaves, which are slightly tomen- 

 tose. Leaves in whorls of 4, spreading, 

 long, linear, rigid, acerose. Flowers 

 very small. A native of South Carohna, 

 on the Edisto River, where it covers a 

 space 300 or 400 yards in width, and 

 two or three miles long, which appears 

 to have been a sand-bank formed by 

 some of the ancient freshets of the 

 river, and on which only a few stunted 



2. p. 222. ; Bot. Mag., t. 2758 ; Willd. Sp. PI., 4. p. 712. ; 



2379 



2380 



oaks (Q. Catesbae^i and Q. nigra) are found intermingled with it. Ac- 

 cording to Pursh, it is also found in the gravelly dry soil of Georgia and 

 Florida; and, in great plenty, on the islands at the mouth of St. Mary's River. 

 It was introduced in 1826. 



CHAP. CXV. 



OF THE HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS BELONGING TO THE ORDER 

 5M1LA'CEjE. 



Identification. Lindl. Nat. Syst. Bot., p. 359. 



Synoni/mes. iiliaceae, in part, Jtiss. Gen., 48. ; Sarment^ceEe, in part, Nees Von Esenbeck Gen. PI. ; 



Smiihce^, in part, R. Brown Prod., p. 2»2,. Lindl. Synops., p. 270., Bart. Ord. Nat., p. 52. 

 Derivation. From Smilax, a beautiful youth, fabled to have been changed into this plant (see Ovid 



Met.) ; or, according to others, from smile, a scraper, from the roughness of the stems of most of 



the species. 



General Characteristics, Sec Monocotyledonous. Flowers hermaphrodite or 

 dicEcious. Calyx and corolla confounded, inferior, 6-parted. Stamens 6, 

 inserted into the perianth near the base ; seldom hypogynous. Ovary 3- 

 celled; the cells 1- or many-seeded. Style trifid. Stigmas 3. Fruit a 

 roundish berry. Albumen between fleshy and cartilaginous. Embryo 

 usually distant from the hilum. {Lindl. in Nat. Syst. of Bot.) Small climbing 

 shrubs, with woody stems, and reticulated leaves, though they are con- 

 sidered as monocotyledonous plants. This order is nearly allied to iili- 

 aceae, of which it was formerly considered to form a part. The plants 

 composing it are found in small quantities in most parts of the world ; but 

 the only ligneous plants which it contains belong to the genus S'milax. 



