ARROWROOT FAMILY. 

 I. THALIA L.Sp.PI. ,, 93 . I753 . 



Annual (or perennial?) herbs, with large long-petioled bu.1 

 and terminal pamcled spikes of bracted usually purple flower*. 





.. ' ' 'niuci i*criicii 



small empty cavities. Base of the style adnate to the b 

 Stigma 2-lipped, dorsally appendaged. Capsule globose or ovoid. 

 Embryo strongly curved. [In honor of Johann Tb.lius, German Mt3,t oTS 



century.] 



About 7 species, all American. Besi,l,s the fulWing. an,,th, r occur, , the SoMfceni 



i. Thalia dealbata Roscoe. Powdery 

 Thalia. (Fig. 1086.) 



Thalia dealbata Roscoe, Trans. I.inn. Soc 8- uo 

 1807. 



Plant finely white-powdery nearly all over. 

 Scapes rather stout, terete, 3-6 tall; petioles i- 

 2 l / 2 long, terete; leaves ovate-lanceolate, acute or 

 acuminate at the apex, rounded, narrowed or sub- 

 cordate at the base, }4-i long, 3'-$' wide; pan- 

 icle 8 / -i8 / long, its spikes numerous, usually erect 

 or ascending; bracts of the panicle narrow, decid- 

 uous, not longer than the spikes; bractlets ovate, 

 unequal, coriaceous, about %' long; flowers pur- 

 ple, longer than the bractlets; capsule ovoid, 

 about 4" in diameter. 



In ponds and swamps, South Carolina to Louisiana, 



Missouri and Texas. 



Family 27. BURMANNIACEAE Blume, Knuin. PI. Jv, i: 17, 1830. 



BURMANNIA FAMILY. 



Low annual herbs, with filiform stems and fibrou> roots. Leaves basal or 

 reduced to cauline scales or bracts. Flowers regular, perfect, the perianth with 

 6 small thick lobes, its tube adnate to the ovary. Starrier 

 serted on the tube of the perianth; anthers 2 -celled, the sacs transversely dehis- 

 cent. Style slender; stigmas 3, dilated; ovary inferior, with 3 central or parietal 

 placentae. Ovules numerous. Capsule many-seeded. Seeds minute, oblong; 

 endosperm none. 



Ten genera and about 60 species, widely distributed in tropical region*. The family i rrpfr- 

 sented in North America by the following genus and Apteria of the C.ulf State* 



i. BURMANNIA L. Sp. PI. 287. 1753. 



Erect herbs, with simple stems and small alternate scale-like or bract-like lean*. Tube 

 of the perianth strongly 3-angled or 3-wingcd, the 3 outer lobes longer than the inner. 

 mens 3, opposite the inner perianth-lobes. Filaments very short; connective of 

 prolonged beyond the sacs into a 2-cleft crest. Ovary 3-celled, with 3 thick i-lobcd central 

 placentae; stigmas globose or 2-lobed. Capsule crowned by the persistent perianth, open 

 ing by irregular lateral ruptures. [In honor of Johann Burmann, Dutch botanist of the 

 eighteenth century.] 



About 20 species, natives of warm regions. Besides the following another occur* in the o*rth. 



eastern States. 



* Text contributed by the late Rev. THOMAS MoRONC. 



