456 AMARYLLIDACE^E. (AMARYLLIS FAMILY.) 



tile. Pod membranaceous, 3-lobed. Leaves and scape from a coated bulb 

 Flowers 1 or 2, from a 1 -2-leaved spathe. (A poetical name.) 



1. A. A tn ma sco, L. (ATAMASCO LILY.) Spathe 2-cleft at the apex ; 

 perianth white and pink ; stamens and style declined. Penn. (MM.) Virginia, 

 and southward. June. Flower 3' long, on a scape 6' high. 



2. PANCRATIUM, L. PANCBATIUM. 



Perianth with a long and slender tube, and an equal 6-parted limb ; the lobes 

 long and narrow, recurved : the throat bearing a tubular or cup-shaped corolliue 

 delicate crown, which connects the bases of the 6 exserted stamens. Anthers 

 linear, versatile. Pod thin, 2 -3-lobed, with a few fleshy seeds, often like bulb- 

 lets. Scapes and leaves from a coated bulb. Flowers large and showy in an 

 umbel-like head or cluster, leafy-bracted. (Name composed of TTCLV, all, and 

 KparvS) powerful, from fancied medicinal properties.) 



1. P. rotatum, Ker. Leaves ascending, strap-shaped (l-2 long); 

 scape few-flowered ; the handsome (white and fragrant) flower with a spreading 

 large 12-toothed crown, the alternate teeth bearing the filaments. (Hymeno- 

 callis rotata, &c., Herbert.) Marshy banks of streams, Kentucky, Virginia, and 

 southward. May. Flowers opening at night or in cloudy weather. 



3. AGAVE, L. AMERICAN ALOE. 



Perianth tubular-funnel-form, persistent, 6-parted ; the divisions nearly equal, 

 narrow. Stamens 6, soon exserted : anthers linear, versatile. Pod coriaceous, 

 many-seeded. Seeds flattened. Leaves very thick and fleshy, often with car- 

 tilaginous or spiny teeth, clustered at the base of the many-flowered scape, from 

 a thick fibrous-rooted crown. (Name altered from dyavos, wonderful, not inap 

 propriate as applied to A. Americana, the Century-plant.) 



1. A. Virgiuica, L. (FALSE ALOE.) Herbaceous; scape simple (3 

 -6 high); the flowers scattered in a loose wand-like spike, greenish-yellow, 

 very fragrant. Dry or rocky banks, Penn. ? Kentucky, Virginia, and south- 

 ward. Sept. 



4. HYPOXYS, L. STAR-GRASS. 



Perianth persistent, 6-parted, spreading ; the 3 outer divisions a little herba- 

 ceous outside. Stamens 6 : anthers erect. Pod crowned with the withered or 

 closed perianth, not opening by valves. Seeds globular, with a crustaceous 

 coat, ascending, imperfectly anatropous, the rhaphe not adherent quite down to 

 the micropyle, the seed-stalk thus forming a sort of lateral beak. Radicle infe- 

 rior ! Stcmless small herbs, with grassy and hairy linear leaves and slender 

 few-flowered scapes from a solid bulb. (Name composed of VTTO, beneath, and 

 ovs, sfiarp, it is thought because the pod is acute at the base.) 



1. H. erecta, L. Leaves linear, grass-like, longer than the umbellately 

 1 -4-flowered scape; divisions of the perianth hairy and greenish outside, yellow 

 within. Meadows ana open woods ; common. June - Aug. 



