LILIACK.*:. (LILY FAMILY.) 517 



quite down to the micropyle, the persistent seed-stalk thus forming a sort of 

 lateral beak. Radicle inferior ! Stemless small herbs, with grassy and hairv 

 linear leaves and slender few-flowered scapes, from ,1 solid bulb. (An old 

 name for a plant having sourish leaves, from vwovs, sub-acid.) 



1. H. erecta, L. Leaves linear, grass-like, longer than the umbellately 

 1 -4-flowered scape ; divisions of the perianth hairy and greenish outside, yel- 

 low within. Meadows and open woods, N. Eng. to Fla., west to Minn., E. Kan., 

 and Tex. 



ORDER 115. DIOSCOREACE^E. (YAM FAMILY.) 



Plants with twining steins from large tuberous roots or knotted roolstocks, 

 iiiul ribbed and netted-veined petioled leaves, small dioecious G-androus and 

 regular flowers, with lie 6-cleft calyx-like perianth adherent in the fertile 

 plant to the 3-celled orary. Styles 3, distinct. Ovules 1 or 2 in each cell, 

 anatropous. Fruit usually a membranaceous 3-angled or winged capsule. 

 Seeds with a minute embryo in hard albumen. 



1. DIOSCOREA, Plumier. YAM. 



Flowers very small, in axillary panicles or racemes. Stamens 6, at the base 

 of the divisions of the 6-parted perianth. Capsule 3-celled, 3-wiuged, loculi- 

 cidally 3-valved by splitting through the winged angles. Seeds 1 or 2 in each 

 cell, flat, with a membranaceous wing. (Dedicated to the Greek naturalist, 

 Dioscorides.) 



1. D. villosa, L. (WILD YAM-ROOT.) Herbaceous. Stems slender, from 

 knotty and matted rootstocks, twining over bushes ; leaves mostly alternate, 

 sometimes nearly opposite or in fours, more or less downy beneath, heart- 

 shaped, conspicuously pointed, 9-11-rihbed ; flowers pale greenish-yellow, the 

 sterile in drooping panicles, the fertile in drooping simple racemes; capsuled 

 8 - 10" long. Thickets, S. New Eng. to Fla., west to Minn., Kan., and Tex. 



ORDER ]]6. LILlCE^E. (Ln.Y FAMILY.) 



Herbs, or rarely woody plants, with regular and symmetrical almost always 

 6-androus flowers ; the perianth not glumaceous, free from the cliiefly 3- 

 celled oi'un/ , the stamens one before each of its divisions or lobes (i. e. 6, in 

 one instance 4), with 2-celled anthers ; fruit a few -many-seeded pod or 

 berry ; the small embryo enclosed in copious albumen. Seeds anatropous 

 or amphitropous (orthotropous in Smilax). Flowers not from a spathe, 

 except in Allitmi ; the outer and inner ranks of the perianth colored 

 alike (or nearly so) and generally similar, except in Trillium. 



SUBORDER I. Smilaceae. Shrubby or rarely herbaceous, the petiole 

 of the 3 - 9-nerved netted-veined leaves often tendril-bearing. Flowers (in 

 ours) dioecious, in axillary umbels, small, with regular 6-parted deciduous 

 perianth. Anthers apparently 1-celled. Stigmas 3, sessile. Fruit a 

 3-celled berry, with 1-2 pendulous orthotropous seeds in each cell. 

 Embryo minute in horny albumen. 

 1. Smilax. Characters as above. 



