SPERMATOPHYTA LILIACEAE 385 



berry roundish, red and few-seeded. The species is native to Europe, Asia, 

 and the Alleghanies, and is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant. 



Poisonous properties. The plant contains two glucosides; one, convallamarin 

 C 23 H 4 ,O ]0 , an extremely poisonous crystalline compound with a bitter sweet 

 taste, with a physiological action on the heart like digitalin, a substance found in 

 the common foxglove, and convallarin C 34 H 31 O 11 , which is crystalline, has 

 a sharp taste and is purgative in its action. Chesnut says : "The amegative 

 and purgative actions of the lily of the valley are quite marked." The action 

 of the heart is infrequent and irregular, and finally death occurs from paralysis. 



Trillium L. Birthwort 



Herbs, with naked stem from a short, horizontal root stock, netted veined, 

 simply whorled leaves, in 1 or 2 whorls ; colored flowers, 3 green persistent sepals ; 

 3 colored petals which wither with fruit ; stamens 6, hypogynous ; linear, adnate 

 anthers on short filaments; sessile stigmas 3; ovary 3-celled; fruit a berry. 



The principal species of the United States are: the wake-robin (T. nivale), 

 which flowers very early in the spring, is from 2-4 inches high and is common 

 northward and eastward; the sessile-flowered wake-robin (T. sessile) which 

 bears sessile dull purple flowers with narrow sepals and petals, and leaves that 

 are often blotched and occurs from eastern Iowa southward; prairie wake- 

 robin (T. recurvatum) of the west, which has dull purple petals but differs 

 from the preceding in having narrow leaves ; large white-flowered wake-robin 

 (T. grandifiorum) which bears a large white flower raised on a peduncle later 

 recurving from the erect, the flowers becoming purplish, and rounded, ovate, 

 sessile leaves; and birthwort (T. erectum) much like T. grandiflorum except 

 that the flowers are not so large and are unpleasantly scented. Both of the two 

 last named are found in the eastern and central states. 



Poisonous properties. Trilliums have long been considered poisonous. All 

 species are emetic. Lindley states that the roots have a violent emetic action. 

 The fruit should be regarded with suspicion. 



HAEMODORACEAE. Bloodwort Family 



Prerennial herbs with fiborous roots; leaves, narrow, lanceolate and some- 

 what erect; small perfect flowers which are woolly or scurfy on the outside; 

 flowers in panicles; perianth 6-parted or 6-lobed adnate to the ovary jstamens 3, 

 opposite the 3 inner segments of the perianth; stigmas 3; fruit a 3-valved 

 capsule, seeds few or numerous. A small family of 9 genera and 35 species 

 mostly native to Africa, Australia and tropic America. 



Lachnanthes. L. Red-Root 



A stout herb with short rootstock; red, fibrous, perennial root; leaves, 

 equitant and sword shaped, crossed at the base and scattered on the stem ; 

 flowers, numerous, borne in a woolly, cymose panicle ; perianth, 6-parted, the 

 outside segments smaller than the inner ; stamens, 3, opposite the 3 inner divi- 

 sions ; pistil with 3-celled ovary few ovules in each cavity ; seeds few, flattened 

 nearly orbicular, fixed by the middle. A species of a single genus native to 

 southeastern North America and western India. (Gyrothcca). 



