HELONIAS BULLATA. 



STUD -FLOWER. 



NATURAL ORDER, MELANTHACE/E. 



Helonias hullata, Linnaeus. — Scape ten to eighteen inches high, rather thick and fleshy, 

 hollow, nearly naked; leaves lance-spatulate, about as long as the scape, one to one and 

 a half inches wide ; racemes short ; pedicels as long as the flowers, colored ; flowers 

 purple, segments obtuse, with blue anthers. (Wood's Class-Book of Botany. See also 

 Gray's Manual of Botany of the Northern States.) 



T is remarkable that while some plants seem to make 

 their way easily, and are found over thousands of square 

 miles of territory, others seem either incapable of wide disper- 

 sion, or, if they ever were capable- of such dispersion, have lost 

 ground, and are at present confined to very narrow limits. The 

 pretty " wild flower " to which this chapter is devoted is a good 

 example of the plants last mentioned. It is not uncommon in 

 some parts of New Jersey, but beyond these and a few localities 

 in Pennsylvania and Virginia (according to Grays Manual) it is 

 unknown. 



To the student this plant is especially interesting as one 

 serving to illustrate a leading division of the great family of lilies, 

 — the Melantkacea. The flowers belonging to the section given 

 to lilies proper — Liliacctz — have but a single consolidated 

 pistil, though there is normally a three-celled ovary, and the 

 anthers are turned inwards ; but those in this section — Melait- 

 tkacetz — have their styles distinct, and the anthers are turned 

 outwards. There are, of course, other distinctions, but these 



