(BLOODWOBT FAMILY.) 457 



ORDER 121. H^EMODORACE^E. (BLOODWORT FAMILY.) 



Herbs, with fibrous roots, usually equitant leaves, and perfect 8-6-androus 

 regular flowers, which are woolly or scurfy outside ; the tube of the 6-lobed 

 periantii coherent with the whole surface, or with merely the lower part, of the 

 3-celled ovary. Anthers introrse. Style single, sometimes 3-partible; 

 the 3 stigmas alternate with the cells of the ovary. Pod crowned or en- 

 closed by the persistent perianth, 3-celled, loculicidal, 3 - many-seeded. 

 Embryo small, in hard or fleshy albumen. A small family.* 



Synopsis. 



* Ovary wholly adherent to the calyx-tube : style filiform : seeds peltate, amphitropous. 



1. LACHNANTHES. Stamens 3, exserted : anthers versatile. Leaves equitant. 



* * Ovary free except the base : style 3-partible : seeds anatropous. 



2. LOPHIOLA. Stamens 6, inserted near the base of the woolly 6-cleft perianth. Leave* 



equitant. 



8. ALETRIS. Stamens 6, inserted in the throat of the warty-roughened and tubular 6-tootued 

 perianth. Leaves flat. 



1. L.ACHNANTHES, Ell. BED-ROOT. 



Perianth woolly outside, 6-parted down to the adherent ovary. Stamens 3, 

 opposite the 3 larger or inner divisions : filaments long, exserted : anthers linear, 

 fixed by the middle. Style thread-like, exserted, declined. Pod globular. 

 Seeds few on each fleshy placenta, flat and rounded, fixed by the middle. 

 Herb with a red fibrous perennial root, equitant sword-shaped leaves, clustered 

 at the base and scattered on the stem, which is hairy at the top, and terminated 

 by a dense compound cyme of dingy yellow and loosely woolly flowers (whence 

 the name, from \dxvr), wool, and avdos* blossom). 



1. L.. tinctoria, Ell. Sandy swamps, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and 

 southward, near the coast. July - Sept. 



2. L.OPHIOLA, Ker. LOPHIOLA. 



Perianth densely woolly, deeply 6-cleft ; the divisions nearly equal, spreading, 

 longer than the 6 stamens, which are inserted at their base. Anthers fixed by 

 the base. Pod ovate, free from the perianth except at the base, pointed with 

 the awl-shaped style, which finally splits into 3 divisions, one terminating each 

 valve. Seeds numerous, oblong, ribbed, anatropous. A slender perennial 

 herb, with creeping rootstocks and fibrous roots, linear and nearly smooth equi- 

 tant leaves ; the stem leafless and whitened with soft matted wool towards the 

 summit, as well as the crowded or panicled cyme. Perianth dingy yellow in- 



* The character by which Endlicher distinguishes this family from the foregoing, viz. by hay- 

 ing the 3 cells of the ovary opposite the inner divisions of the perianth, is not true of either of 

 the following genera. Yet, in Lophiola and Aletris, the 3 stigmas, as well as the 3 divisions in- 

 to which the style splits at maturity, are indeed thus situated : but they stand over the parti- 

 lions, instead of the cells, and therefore exactly surmount the valves of tke loculicidal pod. 

 39 



