SMILAX FAMILY 173 



Family 26. SMIL AC ACE AE. SMILAX FAMILY. 



Vines, with several-ribbed and netted-veined leaf-blades, articulate to 

 the petioles. Flowers dioecious, in peduncled axillary umbels. Sepals and 

 petals each 3, green, with spreading tips. Stamens 6; filaments flattened; 

 anthers introrse. Gynoecium of 3 united carpels; stigmas 3, sessile. Fruit 

 a berry, 1-6-seeded. Endosperm bony. 



1. NEMEXIA Raf. CARRION FLOWER, SMILAX. 



Unarmed vines, with herbaceous stems. Leaves membranous, broad. Ovules 

 2 in each cavity. Berry blue-black, with 3 bands of strengthening tissue. [Smi- 

 lax, in part.] 



1. N. lasioneuron (Hook) Rydb. A herbaceous vine, 1-2 m. long; petioles 

 2-5 cm. long; leaf-blades ovate-cordate, abruptly short-acuminate, 5-10 cm. 

 long, 5-9-ribbed, rather thin, glabrous above, scabrous-hirsutulous on the veins 

 beneath; peduncles 4-7 cm. long; umbel many-flowered; flowers greenish; petals 

 and sepals oblong, 4 mm. long; fruit 8-10 mm. thick, globose, purple with a 

 bloom. Smilax lasioneuron Hook. S. herbacea Coult. Woods: Sask. Kans. 

 Colo. Wyo. Plain Submont. My-Je. 



Family 27. AMARYLLIDACEAE. AMARYLLIS FAMILY. 



Perennial fleshy plants, with bulbs, corms, rootstocks, or woody caudices. 

 Leaves basal, usually sheathing. Flowers perfect, racemose, paniculate, 

 umbellate or solitary. Sepals and petals each 3, epigynous, often united 

 into a tube below, petaloid. Stamens 6. Gynoecium of 3 united carpels; 

 ovary inferior, 3-celled, or rarely only partially so; styles united. Fruit a 

 3-celled capsule or berry. 



Perennial herbs, with fleshy leaves (often spiny-toothed), clustered on the caudex; 



anthers versatile; flowers in soikes or panicles. 1. AGAVE. 



Perennial herbs, with grass-like leaves, from a subterranean corm or short rootstock; 



anthers erect; flowers in ours umbellate. 2. HYPOXIS. 



1. AGAVE L. AMERICAN ALOE, CENTURY PLANT. 



Partially woody plants, with a more or less elongated caudex. Leaves crowded 

 at the base, persistent several years, fleshy, thick, armed with spiny teeth, 

 spine-tipped, channeled. Perianth withering-persistent. Stamens 6; filaments 

 partly adnate to the perianth-tube; anthers versatile. Capsule 3-celled, thick- 

 walled; seeds numerous, in 2 rows in each cell, black, flattened. 



1. A. utahensis Engelm. Leaves very fleshy, 8-10 cm. long, terminating 

 in a long channeled spine, sinuate, with flat teeth; spike dense; flowers in pairs 

 or 4's; perianth yellowish, fully 1 cm. long; lobes oblong, obtuse, 3-4 times as 

 long as the tube; capsule 18-20 mm. long. Desert regions: s Utah Ariz. L. 

 Son. 



2. HYPOXIS L. STAR-GRASS. 



Acaulescent small herbs, with corms or short rootstocks and narrow grass-like 

 basal leaves. Flowers perfect, regular. Sepals and petals each 3, equal, dis- 

 tinct above the ovary, yellow or whitish, the sepals green without. Stamens 6; 

 filaments adnate only to the base of the perianth, short. Capsule 3-celled, thin. 

 1. H. hirsuta (L.) Coville. Leaves narrowly linear, 2-5 mm. wide, longer 

 than the scape, more or less villous; scape 5-15 cm. high, 1-6-flowered; flowers 

 umbellate, 6-10 mm. long, bright yellow within, villous without. H. erecta L. 

 Meadows: Me. Fla. Tex. Sask. Plain. My-O. 



Family 28. IRIDACEAE. IRIS FAMILY. 



Perennial herbs, with elongated or bulb-like rootstocks and narrow equi- 

 tant, 2-ranked leaves. Flowers perfect, regular or nearly so. Sepals and 



