PONTEDERIACE.E. (PICKEREL- WEED FAMILY.) 535 



many-flowered ; flowers perfect ; sepals nearly free (-J' loug), ovate, becoming 

 lauce-ovute, with a short claw. Grassy low grounds, Va. to Fla. and Ala. 

 -t- *- Root bulbous; glands covering the base of the sepals. 



2. Z. elegans, Pursh. Stem 1-3 high; leaves flat, cariuate; raceme 

 simple or sparingly branched and few-flowered ; bracts ovate-lanceolate ; base 

 of the perianth coherent with the base of the ovary, the thin ovate or obovate 

 sepals marked with a large obcordate gland, the inner abruptly contracted to a 

 broad claw. (Z. glaucus, Nutt.) N. Eug. to N. 111., Minii., and westward. 



.'i. Z. Nuttallii, Gray. Like the last ; raceme rather densely flowered, 

 with narrow bracts ; perianth free ; sepals with an ill-defined gland at base, not 

 at all clawed ; seeds larger (3" loug). Kan. to Tex. and Col. 

 * * Glands of the perianth obscure ; perianth small, rotate ; bulb somewhat fibrous. 



4. Z. leimanthoid.es, Gray. Stem 1 -4 high, slender ; leaves narrowly 

 linear ; flowers small (4" in diameter) and numerous, in a few crowded panicled 

 racemes ; oulv a yellowish spot on the contracted base of the divisions of the 

 free periauth. Low grounds, pine-barrens of N. J., to Ga. 



33. AMIANTHIUM, Gray. FLY-POISON ; 



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

 (white) sepals oval or obovate, without claws or glands, persistent. Filaments 

 capillary, equalling or exceeding the perianth. Anthers, capsules, etc., nearly as 

 in Melauthium. Styles thread-like. Seeds wingless, oblong or linear, with aloose 

 coat, 1-4 in eacn cell. Glabrous, with simple stems from a bulbous base or 

 coated bulb, scape-like, few-leaved, terminated by a simple dense raceme of hand 

 some flowers, turning greenish with age. Leaves linear, keeled, grass-like. 

 (From dyuiaj/Tos, unspotted, and &v6os,f/oirer ; a name formed with more regard 

 to euphony than to good construction, alluding to the glandless perianth.) 



1. A. muscsetoxicum, Gray. (FLY-PoiSON.) Leaves broadly linear, 

 elongated, obtuse (- 1' wide) ; raceme simple ; capsule abruptly 3-horned ; seeds 

 oblong, with a fleshy red coat. Open woods, N. J. to Fla., west to Ky. and 

 Ark. June, July. 



ORDER 117. PONTEDERIACEJE. (PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY.) 



Aquatic herbs, ivith perfect more or less irrec/ular flowers from a spathe ; 

 the petal-like 6-merous perianth free from the 3-celled ovary ; the 3 or 6 

 mostly unequal or dissimilar stamens inserted in its throat. Perianth with 

 the 6 divisions colored alike, imbricated in 2 rows in the bud, the whole 

 together sometimes revolute-coiled after flowering, then withering away, 

 or the base thickened-persistent and enclosing the fruit. Anthers in- 

 trorse. Ovules anatropous. Style 1 ; stigma 3-lobed or G-toothed. Fruit 

 a perfectly or incompletely 3-celled many-seeded capsule, or a 1-celled 

 1-seeded utricle. Embryo Blender, in floury albumen. 



1. Poiitederia. Spike many-flowered. Perianth 2-lipped, its fleshy persistent base en- 



closing the 1-seeded utricle. Stamens 6. 



2. Heteranthera. Spathe 1 - few-flowered. Perianth salver-shaped. Stamens 3. Cap- 



sule many-seeded. 



