442 



SMILACEAE. 



10. Smilax Walter! Pursh. Walter's 

 Greenbrier. (Fig. 1059.) 



Smilax Walteri Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 249. 1814. 



Glabrous, stem angled, prickly below, th 

 branches commonly unarmed. Petioles 2"-6 

 long, stout, angled; leaves ovate or ovate-lanceo- 

 late, rarely lobed at the base, cordate or subcor- 

 date, obtuse or abruptly acute at the apex, entire, 

 5-7-nerved, 2 / -5 / long, ic/'-sV' wide; peduncles 

 2 // -5 // long, flattened, thickening in age; umbels 

 6-i5-flowered; pedicels very slender, 2 // -3 // long; 

 berries globose, coral-red i. rarely white), 2>"~^' f m 

 diameter, 2~3-seeded, ripening the first year. 



In wet soil, pine barrens of New Jersey to Florida, 

 Tennessee and Ixmisiana. April-June. 



ii. Smilax lanceolata L. Lance-leaved 

 Greenbrier. (Fig. 1060.) 



Smila.i- lanceolata I,. Sp. PI. 1031. 1753. 



Glabrous, stem terete, usually prickly, the 

 branches slender, long, slightly angled, mostly un- 

 armed. Petioles i // -2 // long; leaves rather thin, 

 lanceolate, acute or acuminate at the apex, nar- 

 rowed at the base, entire, shining above, 5-7- 

 nerved, 2 / -3j / long, 6 // -2o // wide; peduncles 

 thick, angled, 3"-8" long; umbels 8-40-6" owered; 

 pedicels 2 // -/ // long; filaments longer than the 

 anthers; berries dark red, globose, 2 // -3 // in diam- 

 eter, usually 2-seeded, ripening the first year. 



In thickets, Virginia to Arkansas, Florida and Texas. 

 March-Aug. 



Family 22. HAEMODORACEAE R. Br. Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. i: 299. 



1810. 



BLOODWORT FAMILY. 



Perennial herbs with erect stems, narrowly linear leaves, and regular or 

 somewhat irregular small perfect flowers in terminal cymose panicles. Perianth 

 6-parted or 6-lobed, adnate to the ovary, persistent. Stamens 3, opposite the 

 3 inner perianth-segments. Ovary wholly or partly inferior, 3-celled or rarely 

 i -celled; ovules usually few in each cavity, half-anatropous; style mostly slen- 

 der; stigma small, entire or 3-grooved. Fruit a loculicidally 3-valved capsule. 

 Seeds few or rarely numerous; embryo small, in fleshy endosperm. 



About 9 genera and 35 species, mostty natives of South Africa and Australia, a few in tropical 

 America; only the following genus in the north temperate zone. 



i. GYROTHECA Salisb. Trans. Hort. Soc. i: 327. 1812. 

 [LACHXAXTHES Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. i: 47. 1816.] 



A rather stout herb, with a short rootstock, red fibrous roots and equitant leaves, the 

 basal ones longer than those of the stem. Flowers numerous, yellowish, small, in a dense 

 terminal woolly cymose panicle. Perianth 6-parted to the summit of the ovary, the outer 

 segments .smaller than the inner. Filaments filiform, longer than the perianth; anthers 

 linear-oblong, versatile. Ovary 3-celled; ovules few in each cavity, borne on fleshy pla- 

 centae; style very slender, declined. Capsule enclosed by the withering-persistent perianth, 

 nearly globular, 3-valved. Seeds about 6 in each cavity, flattened, nearly orbicular, pejtate. 

 (Greek, referring to the round fruit.) 



A monotypic genus of southeastern North America and the West Indies. 



