512 ILZEMODORACE.E. (BLOOD WORT FAMILY.) 



ORDER 112. HJEMODORACEJE. (BLOODWORT FAMILY.) 



Herbs, with fibrous roots, usually equitant leaves, and perfect 3 - 6-androus 

 regular flowers, which are woolly or scurfy outside ; the tube of the Q-lobed 

 perianth coherent with the whole surface, or with merely the lower part, of 

 the S-celled ovary. Anthers introrse. Style single, sometimes 3-partible ; 

 the 3 stigmas alternate with the cells of the ovary. Capsule crowned or 

 enclosed by the persistent perianth, 3-celled, loculicidal, 3 - many-seeded. 

 Embryo small, in hard or fleshy albumen. A small family ; chiefly of the 

 southern hemisphere. 



* Ovary wholly adherent to the calyx-tube ; style filiform ; seeds peltate, amphitropous. 



1 . Lachnanthes. Stamens 3, exserted ; anthers versatile. Leaves equitant. 



* * Ovary free except at the base ; style 3-partible ; seeds anatropous. 



2. Ijopliiola. Stamens 6, on the base of the woolly 6-cleft perianth. Leaves equitant. 



3. Aletris. Stamens 6, in the throat of the warty-roughened and tubular 6-toothed peri- 



anth. Leaves flat, spreading. 



1. LACHNANTHES, L. RED-ROOT. 



Perianth woolly outside, 6-parted down to the adherent ovary. Stamens 3, 

 opposite the 3 larger or inner divisions ; filaments long, exserted ; anthers 

 linear, fixed by the middle. Style thread-like, exserted, declined. Capsule 

 globular. Seeds few on each fleshy placenta, flat and rounded, fixed by the 

 middle. Herb, with a red fibrous perennial root, equitant sword-shaped leaves, 

 clustered at the base and scattered on the stem, which is hairy at the top and 

 terminated by a dense compound cyme of dingy yellow and loosely woolly 

 flowers (whence the name, from \dx vr l> wool, and &v6os, blossom). 



1. L. tinctoria, Ell. Sandy swamps, near the coast, S. E. Mass., R. L, 

 and N. J. to Fla. July - Sept. 



2. LOPHIOLA, Ker. 



Perianth densely woolly, deeply 6-cleft ; the divisions nearly equal, spread- 

 ing, longer than the 6 stamens, which are inserted at their base. Anthers fixed 

 by the base. Capsule ovate, free from the perianth except at the base, pointed 

 with the awl-shaped style, which finally splits into 3 divisions, one terminating 

 each valve. Seeds numerous, oblong, ribbed, anatropous. A slender peren- 

 nial herb, with creeping rootstocks and fibrous roots, linear and nearly smooth 

 equitant leaves ; the stem leafless and whitened with soft matted wool toward 

 the summit, as also the crowded or panicled cyme. Perianth dingy yellow 

 inside ; the lobes naked only toward the tip, each clothed with a woolly tuft 

 near the base (whence the name, from Kotystov, a small crest). 



1. L. aurea, Ker. Boggy pine-barrens, N. J. to Fla. June- Aug. 



3. ALETRIS, L. COLIC-ROOT. STAR-GRASS. 



Perianth cylindrical, not woolly, but wrinkled and roughened outside by 

 thickly-set points which look like scurfy mealiness, the tube cohering below 

 with the base only of the ovary, 6-cleft at the summit. Stamens 6, inserted at 

 the base of the lobes ; filaments and anthers short, included. Style awl-shaped, 

 3-cleft at the apex ; stigmas minutely 2-lobed. Capsule ovate, enclosed in the 



