CLASSIFICATION OF ANGIOSPERMS. 487 



medicine. Among the species yielding large corms and extensively 

 cultivated is Colchicum B-urmanii (Fig. 269). 



Aloe species. The stems are about a meter high and bear at 

 the summit a cluster of thick, succulent leaves which are lance- 

 olate and spinous-toothed (Fig. 270). The inflorescences are in 

 long spikes which are quite showy and characteristic for the differ- 

 ent species. Aloe Perryi, which yields the SOCOTRINE ALOES, 

 possesses leaves with white spines and flowers that are orange-red 

 or scarlet at the base, the stamens being unequal ; Aloe vera, which 

 yields the BARBADOES or CURACAO ALOES, has leaves with yellow 

 or reddish spines and yellow flowers in which the stamens are as 

 long as the corolla ; Aloe ferox and some other African species, 

 which yield CAPE and UGANDA ALOES, have flowers in close spikes, 

 the petals being white and marked by green lines, and the stamens 

 much longer than the corolla. The inspissated juice is official 

 in all the pharmacopoeias. 



Urginca maritima, which yields the drug squill, is character- 

 ized by its large, onion-like bulb, from which arise ten to twenty 

 broadly lanceolate, grayish-green leaves ; and by having the in- 

 florescence in long spikes consisting of whitish flowers which have 

 a distinctly purple stripe on each division of the perianth. 



Convallaria majalis or Lily-of-the-valley is a plant which is 

 well known. It produces a raceme of delicately odorous white 

 flowers and beautiful oblong leaves with prominent parallel veins. 

 The rhizome and roots are official. 



Smilax species. The drug sarsaparilla is yielded by at least 

 four different species of Smilax, These are mostly vines with 

 woody or herbaceous, often prickly stems and leaves with petioles 

 which have a pair of persistent tendril-like appendages. The 

 flowers are small, mostly greenish, dioecious and in axillary umbels. 

 The fruit is a globose berry. Not a great deal is known of the 

 species which yield the drug, with the exception of Smilax medica, 

 which yields the Mexican or Vera Cruz sarsaparilla. In Smilax 

 medica the leaves vary from more or less cordate to auriculate- 

 hastate; in Smilax officinalis, which yields the native Jamaica 

 sarsaparilla, they are ovate, as they are also in Smilax papyracea, 

 which yields Para sarsaparilla. The Jamaica Sarsaparilla, official 

 in the British Pharmacopoeia, is obtained from plants of Smilax 



