IRIDACEAE (IRIS FAMILY} 121 



25. SMILACEAE Vent. SMILAX FAMILY 



Shrubby or ours herbaceous plants, climbing or supported by a pair of 

 tendrils on the petiole of the ribbed and netted- veined simple leaves. Flow- 

 ers small, dioecious. Perianth regular, of 6 similar deciduous sepals, free from 

 the ovary, with as many stamens as sepals, and introrse 1-celled anthers. 

 Ovary with 3 cells and as many elongated spreading sessile stigmas. 



1. NEMEXIA Raf. SMILAX 



Unarmed vines, with knotted or tuberous rootstocks and annual stems. 

 Leaf-blades membranous, broad, sometimes hastate. Umbels on long and 

 slender peduncles. Pedicels inserted in small pits in a conic or globose re- 

 ceptacle. Stamens 6, more or less reduced in pistillate flowers. Ovary 3- 

 celled, wanting in staminate flowers; ovules two in each cavity. Berry blue- 

 black. SMILAX. 



1. Nemexia herbacea (L.) Small, Fl. S. E. U. S. 281. 1903. Stems elon- 

 gated, climbing, glabrous: leaves numerous; blades ovate, triangular-lanceolate 

 to lanceolate, essentially alike throughout the plant, 4-8 cm. long, short- 

 acuminate, 7-9-nerved, rounded or truncate at the base: bracts subtending the 

 peduncles like the leaves : peduncles much surpassing the subtending bracts at 

 maturity: flowers carrion-scented: sepals and petals greenish, oblong or 

 broadened upward, acutish: filaments twice or thrice as long as the anthers: 

 berries subglobose, bluish-black, 6-8 mm. in diameter. CARRION FLOWER. 

 Eastern Wyoming and thence far eastward and northward. 



la. Nemexia herbacea melica A. Nels. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 17: 175. 1904. 

 Very similar but the leaves very thin and more decidedly ovate: peduncles 

 usually shorter; tendrils very slender: flowers sweet or honey-scented. SWEET 

 SMILAX. In canons; northern Colorado. 



26. IRIDACEAE Lindl. IRIS FAMILY 



Perennial herbs, with equitant sheathing 2-ranked linear leaves, and per- 

 fect triandrous regular flowers, the six divisions of the superior perianth petal- 

 like. . Flowers showy, few or solitary. Style 3-cleft at the apex. Stamens on 

 the base of the sepals, with extrorse anthers. Ovary 3-celled, becoming a 

 3-lobed or triangular capsule with few or many seeds. 



Style branches large and petaloid . . . . ' . . . 1. Iris. 



Style branches filiform . . . . . .' . . .2. Sisyrinchium. 



IRIS L. FLAG. BLUE FLAG 



Stems from usually thickened rootstocks. Flowers large and showy, solitary 

 or few in a forked corymb. Perianth tube prolonged above the ovary. Sta- 

 mens beneath the arching, petal-like branches of the style; filaments dis- 

 tinct. Base of the style connate with the perianth tube; the divisions 

 stigmaticat the thin apex, above which is a broad 2-parted crest, which is 

 decurrent on the inner side to the base of the style. Capsule oblong. Seeds 

 numerous, flattened. 



1. Iris missouriensis Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phila. 7: 58. 1834. Stem slender, 

 the leaves few, mostly basal, shorter than the stem: flowers 1-2, with scarious 

 dilated bracts, light blue; parts of the flower 5-7 cm. long: capsule oblong, 

 obtusely angled, 2-3 cm. long. (I. pelogonus L. N. Good. Bot. Gaz. 33: 68. 

 1902.) Frequent on u wet lands throughout our range; not rarely also on 

 sandy hillsides. 



