496 HJEMODORACE.E (BLOOD WOKT FAMILY.) 



divisions of the perianth oblong, hairy without ; seeds black, minutely pitted. 

 -Low pine barrens, in the lower districts. March -April. Scape 4' -9' 

 long, at length procumbent. Flowers 9" -12" wide. 



ORDER 147. H^EMODORACE^E. (BLOODWORT FAMILY.) 



Perennial fibrous-rooted herbs, with leafy or scape-like steins, 

 mostly equitant and sword-shaped leaves, and regular woolly or scurfy 

 flowers. Perianth tubular, 6-cleft, more or less cohering with the 3- 

 celled ovary. Stamens 3 or 6: anthers adnate, introrse, 2-celled. 

 Ovules mostly few, anatropous or amphitropous, attached to the cen- 

 tral placentae. Styles 3, united, deciduous, or persistent and separat- 

 ing : stigma entire. Capsule enclosed in the persistent perianth, 

 loculicidally 3-valved at the apex. Embryo small, in hard albumen. 



Synopsis. 



1. LACHNANTHES. Perianth woolly : stamens 3 : style deciduous : flowers cymose : 



stem leafy. 



2. LOPHIOLA. Perianth woolly : stamens 6 : style persistent : flowers corymbose : stem 



leafy. 



3. ALETRIS. Perianth scurfy : stamens G : style persistent : flowers spiked : stem scape- 



like. 



1. LACHNANTHES, Ell. 



Perianth woolly without, 6-lobed ; with the exterior lobes smaller; the tube 

 adnate to the ovary. Stamens 3, slender, exserted : anthers linear. Style 

 filiform, declined, deciduous: stigma entire. Capsule globose, 3-angled. 

 Seeds amphitropous, few, thin, orbicular, concave, fixed by the middle to the 

 thick globose placenta?. A leafy-stemmed perennial, with orange colored 

 juice. 



1. L. tinctoria, Ell. Root red, fibrous; stem mostly simple, villous 

 ,:ibove ; leaves linear-sword-shaped, smooth, the lower ones crowded and equi- 

 tant, the others smaller and remote ; flowers 2-ranked, crowded in lateral and 

 terminal compound woolly cymes, yellow within ; exterior lobes of the perianth 

 linear; valves of the capsule separating from the placenta;; seeds black. 

 Ponds and ditches. July-Sept. Stem 2-3 high. Leaves 1- 1^ loug. 

 Flowers ' long. 



2. LOPHIOLA, Tver. 



Perianth woolly without, and at the throat within, nearly equally 6-lobed, 

 spreading ; the tube adnate to the lower half of the ovarv. Stamens 6. slender : 

 anthers obloug. Style subulate, erect, persistent and separable : stigma entire. 

 Capsule ovate, coriaceous, 3-ribbed and 3-furrowed. Seeds auatropous, few, 

 linear-oblong, curved, fixed at the base. 



1. L. aurea, Ker. Stem erect, finely pubescent above, mostly simple; 

 lowest leaves linear-sword-shaped, acute, equitant, the others diminishing up- 

 ward, remote; flowers small, yellow within, in corymbose woolly racemes. 

 Wet pine barrens, Florida, and northward. July. Stem 2 high, creeping 

 at the base. Leaves 4' -12' long. Flowers 3" long, nodding in the bud. 





