ILLECEBRACE.E. 183 



SAUIUJ'RITS, L. LIZARD'S TAIL. 



S. cer'nuus, L. A swamp herb, with jointed branching 

 stem, 2 feet high. Leaves petioled, heart-shaped, with con- 

 verging ribs. Flowers white, in a dense terminal spike, 

 nodding at the end, each flower with a lanceolate bract. 

 Flowers perfect, but entirely destitute of calyx and corolla. 

 Stamens usually 6 or 7, with long slender white filaments. 

 Carpels 3 or 4, slightly united at the base. 



ORDER LXXV. PHYTOLACCA'CE^l. (POKEWEED F.) 



Herbs with alternate leaves and perfect flowers, resemb- 

 ling in most respects the plants of the next Order, but the 

 ovary is composed of several carpels in a ring, forming a 

 berry in fruit. Only one Genus and one Species. 



PIIYTOLAC'CA, Tourn. POKEWEED. 



P. deean'dra, L. (COMMON POKE.) Calyx of 5 rounded 

 white sepals. Ovary green, of ten 1-seeded carpels united in 

 a ring. Styles 10, short and separate. Stamens 10. Fruit 

 a crimson or purple 10-seeded berry. Stem very tall and 

 stout, smooth. Flowers in long racemes opposite the leaves. 

 Sandy soil. 



ORDER LXXV. ILLECEBRA'CE^l. (KNOTWORT FAMILY.) 



Small diffuse or tufted herbs, with mostly opposite and 

 entire leaves, scarious stipules, and a 4-5-toothed or parted 

 coriaceous persistent calyx. Petals wanting. Stamens 

 perigynous, as many as the lobes of the calyx and opposite 

 them, or fewer. Style 2-cleft at the apex. Fruit a 1-seeded 

 utricle. 



PARONYCH'IA, Tourn. WHITLOW-WORT. 



P. sessiliflo'ra, Nutt. Flowers terminal, solitary, sessile. 

 Stems densely matted or tufted, from a woody root. The 

 dry, silvery stipules 2-cleft. Sepals oblong-linear, concave, 

 awned at the apex. N./W. prairies. 



