162 LILIACE^E. Maianthemum. 



line or two long : segments of the perianth 2 or 3 lines long. Tovaria stellata, 

 Necker ; Baker, 1. c. 565. 



In the Rocky Mountains from British America to New Mexico and eastward to the Atlantic ; 

 alse apparently on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada from Klamath Valley (Cronkhitc) to 

 Carson City, Anderson, Bloomer. 



15. MAIANTHEMUM, Weber. DWARF SOLOMON'S SEAL. 



Perianth-segments and stamens 4. Filaments filiform. Ovary 2- (or rarely 3-) 

 celled and stigma 2-lobed. Dwarf, with 2 (rarely 3) ovate- to lanceolate-cordate 

 mostly petioled cauline leaves, and often a single long-petioled leaf from the root. 

 Otherwise as Smilacina. Flowers in a usually simple raceme ; pedicels solitary or 2 

 or 3 together. 



Only two species, one of which is peculiar to the Atlantic States. 



1. M. bifolium, DC., var. (?) dilatatum, Wood. Glabrous : stem often stout, 

 3 inches to a foot high, from a slender running rootstock, flexuous above : leaves 

 (2 or 3) ovate- or subreniform-cordate, with a deep sinus and rounded auricles, 

 acute or acuminate, 2 to 4 inches long, on petioles \ to 2^ inches long, the upper 

 petiole much the shorter; the third leaf, when present, sessile, narrower, usually 

 cuneate at base : raceme pedunculate, J to 2 inches long, simple or somewhat panicu- 

 late at base ; pedicels a line or two long : perianth white, the segments oblong- 

 obovate, 1 to 1^ lines long, becoming deflexed : stamens a third or a half shorter: 

 style stout, shorter than the ovate ovary : berry red, globose, 1 4-seeded, about 3 

 lines in diameter: seed ovate, brown, over \\ lines long. Proc. Philad. Acad. 

 1868, 174. Convalloria bifolia, var. Kamtschatica, Cham. & Schlecht. in Linnasa, 

 vi. 587. 



Frequent in the Coast Ranges, in swampy places, from Marin County northward to Alaska ; 

 also in eastern Siberia and Japan. The ordinary European and Asiatic form differs in its lower 

 and more slender habit, narrower and more attenuate leaves, which with the petioles are more or 

 less pubescent, and a more slender style ; the flowers, fruit, and seeds are also somewhat smaller. 



16. NOUN A, Michx. 



Flowers polygarno-dioecious, small. Perianth persistent, of 6 distinct whitish 

 oblong-lanceolate 1-nerved segments. Stamens 6, included, near the base of the 

 segments, mostly abortive or wanting in the fertile flowers ; filaments very short, 

 filiform ; anthers cordate-ovate, versatile, introrse. Ovary sessile, deeply 3-lobed, 

 rudimentary in the sterile flowers ; ovules 2 at the base of each cell ; styles very 

 short, distinct and recurved or slightly coherent, stigmatic on the inner side. Cap- 

 sule mostly membranaceous and somewhat inflated, subglobose, lobed nearly to the 

 middle, loculicidal or the thin walls usually bursting irregularly and often before 

 the maturity of the seed. Seeds solitary, globose to ovate-oblong, with a close thin 

 light-colored slightly wrinkled or reticulated testa. Perennials, with a thick woody 

 caudex or trunk (often elongated with a much dilated base), numerous narrowly 

 linear and mostly rigid serrulately margined leaves, and a stout nearly naked flow- 

 ering stem bearing a compound racemose many-flowered panicle, the main branches 

 subtended by foliaceous long-attenuate bracts; pedicels solitary, short, jointed 

 usually near the base, subtended by minute scarious bracts. Watson, Proc. Amer. 

 Acad. xiv. 246. Beaucarnea, Lemaire; Baker, Trim. Journ. Bot. x. 323. 



A genus of about a dozen species, of Mexico and the southern borders of the United States, 

 many of them only imperfectly known. 



