Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 57 



LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY (Convallaria majalis.) As 

 a garden flower, this species is probably familiar to 

 nearly everyone. While, as a native, it is only found 

 in some of the southeastern mountain ranges, it is 

 sometimes found in the North as an escape from cul- 

 tivation. The flower we usually see in florists or in 

 gardens is the European species but it appears to be 

 identical with our native southern one. It is a deli- 

 cately beautiful species, very rich in fragrance and 

 very hardy; its popularity is shown by the frequency 

 with which it appears in both poetry and prose. The 

 bell-shaped, white flowers, with six short, re-curved 

 lobes, grow in a one-sided raceme at the top of a 

 scape, the base of which is sheathed by the two large, 

 broad, oblong-pointed, parallel-veined leaves. It flow- 

 ers in May and June in mountains from Va. to S. C. 



COMMON GREEN BRIER (Smilax rotundifolia) is 

 a woody climbing vine with scattered sharp prickles; 

 it climbs by means of pairs of tendrils from the axils 

 of the leaves. Leaves alternating along the stem; 

 round-ovate, sharply pointed at the tip and somewhat 

 heart-shaped at the base. Flowers, few on 'slender 

 peduncles from the angles of the leaves; perianth 

 bell-shaped, with six short, spreading lobes, pale 

 greenish in color. Common in moist thickets from 

 N. S. to Minn, and southwards, flowering in May and 

 June. 



CARRION FLOWER (Smilax herbacea) has a her- 

 baceous stem without prickles. The flowers are 

 small, light green, carrion-scented, in a many flower- 

 ed umbel on a long petiole from the angle of a leaf. 

 Leaves heart-shaped and parallel-nerved. Found in 

 the same range and flowers at the same time as the 

 last. The genus smilax consists of many widely dis- 

 tributed species, usually having blue-black berries in 

 the Fall. 



