LILY FAMILY. 337 



S. hispida. Only from Penn. N. : rootstock long ; stem high-climbing, 

 below beset with long and dark bristly prickles ; leaves ovate and heart-shaped, 

 green both sides, thin, 4' -5' long; flat peduncles l'- 2' long; flowers larger 

 than in the Common Greenbrier. 



# # Downy or smooth : stigma, cell of the ovary, and seed only one ! 



S. ptimila. Sandy soil S. : rising only 1 -3 high, not prickly, soft-downy, 

 with ovate or oblong and heart-shaped 5-ribbed evergreen leaves, when old 

 smooth above ; peduncles twice as long as petioles, densely-flowered ; berries 

 whitish. 



S. Iaurif61ia. From pine-barrens of New Jersey S. : very smooth, high- 

 climbing, stem with some prickles ; leaves thick, evergreen, glossy, varying 

 from ovate to lanceolate, 3-nerved ; peduncles not exceeding the petiole and 

 pedicels; berries black. 



2. Stems herbaceous, never prickly, smooth : leaves long petioled, thin : ovules 

 and seeds usually a pair in each cell: berries blue-black with a bloom. 



S. herbacea, CARRION FLOWER (the scent of the blossoms justifies the 

 name) : common in moist ground ; erect and recurving, often without tendrils, 

 or low-climbing, very variable in size, generally smooth ; leaves ovate-oblong 

 or roundish and mostly heart-shaped, 7 - 9-nerved ; peduncles sometimes short, 

 generally 3' - 4' or even 6' - 8' long, even much surpassing the leaves, 20 - 40- 

 flowered. 



S. tamnifolia. Pine barrens from New Jersey S. : differs in its heart- 

 shaped and some halberd-shaped only 5-nerved leaves ; peduncles rather longer 

 than the petioles, and berry fewer-seeded. 



124. LILIACE^I, LILY FAMILY. 



Large family, known as a whole by its regular symmetrical flow- 

 ers, with perianth of 6 (in one instance of 4) parts, as many stamens 

 with 2rcelled anthers, and a free 3-celled (rarely 2-celled) ovary. 

 Perianth either partly or wholly colored, or greenish, but not glu- 

 maceous. Flowers not from a spathe, except in Allium, &c. 

 Chiefly herbs, with entire leaves ; all perennials. The great groups 

 comprised are the following. 



I. TRILLIUM FAMILY; with netted-veined leaves all in one 

 or two whorls on an otherwise naked stem, which rises from a fleshy 

 rootstock : styles or sessile stigmas 3, separate down to the ovary. 

 Fruit a berry. 



1. TRILLIUM. Perianth of 3 green persistent sepals, and 3 colored petals; the 



hitter at length withering away after flowering, but not deciduous. Anthers 

 linear, adnate, on short filaments, looking inwards. Awl-shaped styles or stig- 

 mas persistent. Ovary 3 - 6-angled. Berry purple or red, ovate, many-seeded. 



2. MEDEOLA. Perianth of 6 oblong and distinct nearly similar pieces, recurved, 



deciduous. Anthers oblong, shorter than the slender filaments. Stigmas or 

 styles long and diverging or recurved on the globular ovary, deciduous. 

 Berry dark-purple, few-seeded. 



II. MELANTHIUM FAMILY; with alternate and parallel- 

 veined leaves ; stem simple, at least up to the panicles ; and flower* 

 often polygamous, sometimes dicecious; styles or sessile stigmas 3 r 

 separate down to the ovary. Fruit a pod. Anthers almost always 

 turned outwards. Perianth withering or persisting, not deciduous, 

 the 6 parts generally alike. Mostly acrid or poisonous plants, some 

 used in medicine. 



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