UVULARIA. 251 



The Name is MecUola Virgitiica—M.edeola, derived from 



the fabled sorceress Medea ; Virginica, because the plant was 

 first found in Virginia (by Gronovius). 



The Order TRiLLiACEiE, represented by these plants, 

 comprehends only 4 genera, and about 30 species. Some 

 authors unite this order to the Lily worts. Their rhizomes 

 are generally emetic, some of the Trilliums violently so. 



LXVI. BELLWORT, OR WILD OATS. 



Description. — Associated in memory with babbling 

 brooks, mossy banks, grassy knolls, in the borders of meadow 

 and forest, are the hanging Bellworts, known to our child- 

 hood as Wild Oats. They come not in Flora's advance-guard 

 with Bloodroot and Erythronium, but follow later, in May, 

 when her ranks are already full. It would be desirable to 

 study this plant in connection with Erythronium ; but as 

 their flowers are not contemporary, a dried specimen, or the 

 analysis (p. 34) must suffice. 



Analysis (generic). — Five or six kinds of Bellwort may 

 be found, all flowering in May. Our specimens may there- 

 fore be various, yet all smooth and delicate herbs 6-18' high. 

 The stem rises from a rhizome, forks into two branches 

 above, both leafy, and one bearing a drooping flower on a 

 peduncle, which is at first terminal, but becomes axillary by 

 the further development of the branch. The leaves are 

 parallel-veined, oval or oblong, and either sessile, or clasp- 

 ing the stem at the base (arnplexicaid), or perfoliate, i. e., 

 with the stem passing through the blade near the base. 



The ^ei'ianlh is between cylindric and bell-shaped, con- 

 sisting of 3 sepals and 3 petals all similar in color and lance- 

 spatulate in form, often twisted, having a honey groove or 



