MELANTHACE^. (COLCHICUM FAMILY.) 477 



/lowers; sepals dingy-green, oblanceolate or spatulate (2 1 -"- 3" long, those of 

 the sterile flowers on claws, widely spreading. (Melanthium monoicum, Walt. 

 Leimanthium monoicum, Gray.) — Rich woods, mountains of Virginia and 

 southward. July. 



3. V. Woodii, Robbins. Leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate ; pedi- 

 cels (l£"-3" long) shorter than the flowers, the oblanceolate spreading sepals (3"- 

 4i" long) dingy green turning brownish purple within: otherwise much as in the 

 last, of which it may prove to be a variety ; but the flowers are mostly double 

 the size, the panicle stouter, &c. (Plant 3° -6° high.) — Woods and hilly bar- 

 rens, Green Co., Indiana, Wood. Augusta, Rlinois, Mead. July. 



8. AM I A NT HI UM, Gray. Fly-Poison. 



Flowers perfect. Perianth widely spreading ; the distinct and free petal-like 

 (white) sepals oval or obovate, sessile, not gland-bearing. Filaments capillary, 

 equalling or exceeding the perianth. Anthers (as in all the foregoing) kidney- 

 shaped or heart-shaped, becoming 1-celled, and shield-shaped after opening. 

 Styles thread-like. Pods, &c. nearly as in Melanthium. Seeds wingless, ob- 

 long or linear, with a loose coat, 1 -4 in each cell. — Glabrous plants, with sim- 

 ple stems from a bulbous base or coated bulb, scape-like, few-leaved, terminated 

 by a simple dense raceme of handsome flowers, turning greenish with age. 

 Leaves linear, keeled, grass-like. (From dfiiavros, unspotted, and civdos, flower; 

 a name made with more regard to euphony than to correctness of construction, 

 alluding to the glandless perianth.) 



1. A. MlllscSEtoxiCMm, Gray. (Fly-Poison.) Leaves broadly linear, 

 elongated, obtuse (£' to 1' wide), as long as the scape; raceme simple, oblong oi 

 cylindrical ; pod abruptly 3-homed ; seeds oblong, with a fleshy red coat. (He- 

 lonias erythrosperma, Michx.) — Open woods, New Jersey and Pennsylvania 

 to Kentucky and southward. June, July. 



9. XEBOPHYLLUM, Michx. Xerophyllum. 



Flowers perfect. Perianth widely spreading ; sepals petal-like (white), oval, 

 distinct, sessile, not glandular, at length withering, about the length of the awl- 

 Bhaped filaments. Anthers 2-celled, short. Styles thread-like, stigmatic down 

 the inner side. Pod globular-3-lobed, obtuse (small), loculuidal ; the valves 

 bearing the partitions. Seeds 2 in each cell, collateral, 3-angled, not margined. 

 — Herb with the aspect of an Asphodel ; the stem simple, l°-4° high, from a 

 bulbous base, bearing a simple compact raceme of showy white flowers, thickly 

 beset with needle-shaped leaves; the upper ones reduced to bristle-like bracts ; 

 those from the root very many in a dense tuft, reclined, 1° or more long, 1' 

 wide below, rough on the margin, remarkably dry and rigid (whence the name, 

 from £r]p6s, arid, and (pvXkov, leaf). 



1. X. aspliodeloides, Nutt. (X. tenax, Nutt. X. setifolium, Michx. 

 Helonias, L.) — Pine barrens, New Jersey, Virginia 1 and southward. (Also in 

 Oregon and California.) June. 



