SMTLACEJE. (SMIL AX FAMILY.) 461 



neath, heart-shaped, conspicuously pointed, 9- 11 -ribbed ; flowers pale greenish- 

 yellow, the sterile in drooping panicles, the fertile in drooping simple racemes. 

 Thickets, New England to Wisconsin, and common southward. July. A 

 slender vine, from knotty and matted rootstocks, twining over bushes. Pods ' 

 long. A bad name, for the plant is never villous, and often nearly smooth. 



ORDER 125. SMILACE-flE. (SMILAX FAMILY.) 



Herbs, or climbing shrubby plants, with ribbed and conspicuously netted- 

 veiny leaves, regular 6-lQ-androus Jlowers with the Q 10-leaved perianth 

 free from the 3 - 5-celled (rarely 1 - 2-celled) ovary; the styles or sessile stig- 

 mas as many and distinct. Anthers introrse. Fruit a few - several-seeded 

 berry. Embryo minute, in hard albumen. A group with no known and 

 clear marks of distinction from the next : as here received it comprises two 

 marked suborders, viz. : 



SUBORDER I. EUSMILACE^. THE TRUE SMILAX FAMILY. 



Flowers dioecious, axillary ; the 6 divisions of the perianth all alike. 

 Anthers 1-celled (2-locellate). Styles nearly wanting: stigmas 1-3. 

 Seeds orthotropous, pendulous. Chiefly shrubby and alternate-leaved. 



1. SMILAX. Perianth of 6 distinct and similar divisions. Ovules solitary, rarely 2 in each 



cell. 



SUBORDER II. TRILLIACE^. THE TRILLIUM FAMILY. 



Flowers perfect, terminal : the sepals and petals usually different in col- 

 or. Anthers 2-celled. Styles manifest. Seeds anatropous, several in 

 each cell. Herbs : leaves whorled. 



2. TRILLIUM. Sepals 3, green, persistent. Petals 3. Flower single. 



a MEDEOLA. Sepals and petals 3, colored alike, deciduous. Flowers umbelled. 



SUBORDER I. EUSMFLACE^E. THE TRUE SMILAX FAMILI 



1. UII Li AX, Tourn. GREENERIES. CATBRIBB. 



Flowers dioecious. Perianth of 6 (rarely 5 or 7) equal spreading sepals 

 (greenish or yellowish), deciduous. Ster. Fl. Stamens as many as the sepals, 

 and at their base : filaments linear : anthers linear or oblong, fixed by the base. 

 Fert. Fl. Filaments, if present, sterile. Stigmas thick and spreading, almost 

 sessile-. Berry globular, 1-3-celled, 1-6-seeded. Seeds orthotropous, sus 

 pended, globular. Albumen horny. Shrubs, or rarely perennial herbs, often 

 evergreen and prickly, climbing by a pair of tendrils on the petioles, with yel- 

 lowish-green stems, variously shaped simple leaves, and small flowers in axillary 

 peduncled umbels. (The ancient Greek name, of obscure meaning.) 



{ 1. SMILAX PROPER. Stems woody, often prickly : ovules and seeds solitary m 

 etch cell. (All our species are glabrous.) 

 39* 



