8 



LlLlACEAE. 



SMILAX. Greenbrier. 

 (Family Liliaceae). 



Woody or sometimes herbaceous 

 plants climbing by tendrils and 

 commonly armed with strong and 

 often large prickles: deciduous in 

 the North. Stems terete or sharply 

 angled: pith lacking, the wood 

 "endogenous" as in a corn-stalk. 

 Buds moderate, often superposed 

 with the upper developing prompt- 

 ly, 3-sided, pointed, very diver- 

 gent, with a single exposed scale. 

 Leaves tearing away above the 

 dilated partly clasping base, 

 therefore leaving no definite scar, 

 but with about a dozen vascular 

 bundles: stipules, or their near- 

 equivalent, persistent as tendrils 

 on the leaf-bases. 



Winter-character references: 

 . 8. hispida. Brendel, 27, pi. 4; 

 Hitchcock (3), 20, (4), 139. f. 



121-2. Velenovsky, in volume 68 of the journal Flora, discus- 

 ses the anomalous position of the bud-scales in this genus. 



The tender vine so much grown by florists as "smilax" 

 belongs to another genus (Asparagus). 



1. Evergreen: leaves elliptical to oblong. 

 Deciduous. 2. 



2. Stems woolly, not prickly. 



Stems glabrous, usually with prickles. 



3. Stems glaucous. 



Stems not glaucous. 4. 



4. Prickles needle-like, black. 

 Prickles dilated or flattened at base. 



(1). S. laurifolia. 



3. 



(2). S. pumila. 

 S. glauca. 



(3). S. hispida. 

 (4). S. rotundifolia.' 



