UYTJLARIA. 251 



The Name is Medbola Virginica Medeola derived from 

 the fabled sorceress Medea ; Virginica, because the plant was 

 first found in Virginia (by Gronovius). 



The Order TKILLIACEJE, 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 (amplexicauT), or perfoliate, i. e., 

 with the stem passing through the blade near the base. 



The ^Perianth 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 



