

SMILACE^E. (SMILAX FAMILY.) 461 



neath, heart-shaped, conspicuously pointed, 9-11-ribbed ; flowers pale greenish- 

 yellow, the sterile in drooping panicles, the fertile in drooping simple racemes. 

 Thickets, New England to Wisconsin, and common southward. July. A 

 slender vine, from knotty and matted rootstocks, twining over bushes. Pods ' 

 long. A bad name, for the plant is never villous, and often nearly smooth. 



ORDER 125. SMIL.AC.E/E. (SMIL AX FAMILY.) 



Herbs, or climbing shrubby plants, with ribbed and conspicuously netted- 

 veiny leaves, regular 6-10-androus flowers with the 6-10-leaved perianth 

 free from the 3 - b-celled (rarely 1 - 2-celled) ovary ; the styles or sessile stig- 

 mas as many and distinct. Anthers introrse. Fruit a few - several-seeded 

 berry. Embryo minute, in hard albumen. A group with no known and 

 clear marks of distinction from the next : as here received it comprises two 

 marked suborders, viz.: See Addend. 



SUBORDER I. EUS MILAGES. THE TRUE SMILAX FAMILY. 



Flowers dioecious, axillary ; the 6 divisions of the perianth all alike. 

 Anthers 1-celled (2-locellate). Styles nearly wanting: stigmas 1-3. 

 Seeds orthotropous, pendulous. Chiefly shrubby and alternate-leaved. 



1. SMILAX. Perianth of 6 distinct and similar divisions. Ovules solitary, rarely 2 in each 



cell. 



SUBORDER II. TKILLIACE^. THE TRILLIUM FAMILY. 



Flowers perfect, terminal : the sepals and petals usually different in col- 

 or. Anthers 2-cclled. Styles manifest. Seeds anatropous, several in 

 each cell. Herbs : leaves whorled. 



2. TRILLIUM. Sepals 3, green, persistent. Petals 3. Flower single. 



3. MEDEOLA. Sepals and petals 3, colored alike, deciduous. Flowers umbelled. 



SUBORDER I. EUSMILACEJG. THE TRUE SMILAX FAMILY. 



1. SlfllLiAX, Tourn. GREENBRIEB. CATBRIER. 



Flowers dioecious. Perianth of 6 (rarely 5 or 7) equal spreading sepals 

 (greenish or yellowish), deciduous. Ster. FL Stamens as many as the sepals, 

 and at their base : filaments linear : anthers linear or oblong, fixed by the base. 

 Pert, FL Filaments, if present, sterile. Stigmas thick and spreading, almost 

 sessile. Berry globular, 1-3-cellcd, 1-6-secded. Seeds orthotropous, sus- 

 pended, globular. Albumen horny. Shrubs, or rarely perennial herbs, often 

 evergreen and prickly, climbing by a pair of tendrils on the petioles, with yel- 

 lowish-green stems, variously shaped simple leaves, and small flowers in axillary 

 peduncled umbels. (The ancient Greek name, of obscure meaning.) t 



1. SMILAX PROPER. Stems ivoody, often prickly : ovules and seeds solitary in 

 each cell. (All our species are glabrous.) 

 39* 



