474 MELANTHACE^. (COLCHICUM FAMILY.) 



die, exceeding the pointless anthers; pod triangular-obwate, narrowed into a stalk. 



Low woods ; common. May. Stem 6' - 9' high when in flower : the cream- 

 colored flower 1' long. 



4. U. puberula, Michx. Slightly puberulent ; leaves bright green both 

 sides, and shining, with rough edges ; styles separate to near the base, not 

 exceeding the short-pointed anthers ; pod ovate, not stalked. Mountains and 

 throughout the upper part of Virginia, and southward. 



2. PROSARTES, Don. PROSARTES. 



Perianth bell-shaped, much as in Uvularia. Filaments thread-like, much 

 longer than the linear-oblong blunt anthers, which are fixed near the base. 

 Ovary with 2 ovules suspended from the summit of each cell : styles united into 

 one : stigmas short, recurved-spreading. Berry ovoid or oblong, pointed, 3-6- 

 seeded, red. Downy low herbs, divergently branched above, with closely sessile 

 ovate and membranaceous leaves, and greenish-yellow drooping flowers on slen- 

 der terminal peduncles, solitary or few in an umbel. (Name from Trpoo-aprdw, 

 to hang from, in allusion to the pendent ovules or flowers.) 



1. P. lanugiiidsa, Don. Leaves ovate-oblong, taper-pointed, rounded 

 or slightly heart-shaped at the base, closely sessile, downy underneath ; flowers 

 solitary or in pairs ; "sepals linear-lanceolate, taper-pointed (' long), soon spread- 

 ing, twice the length of the stamens, greenish; style smooth. (Streptopus 

 lanuginosus, Michx. ) Eich woods, Western New York to Virginia, Kentucky, 

 and southward along the Alleghanies. May. 



3. STREPTOPUS, Michx. TWISTED-STALK. 



Perianth recurved-spreading from a bell-shaped base j the sepals lanceolate- 

 acute, the 3 inner keeled. Anthers arrow-shaped, fixed near the base to the 

 short flattened filaments, tapering above to a slender entire or 2-cleft point. 

 Ovary with many ovules in each cell : styles united into one. Berry red, round- 

 ish-ovoid, many -seeded. Herbs, with rather stout stems, divergently-spreading 

 branches, ovate and taper-pointed rounded-clasping membranaceous leaves, and 

 small (extra-) axillary flowers, either solitary or in pairs, on slender thread-like 

 peduncles, which are abruptly bent or contorted near the middle (whence the 

 name, from o-rpeTrros, twisted, and Trovs,foot, or stalk). 



1. S. amplexifolilis, DC. Leaves very smooth, glaucous underneath, 

 strongly clasping ; flower greenish-white on a long peduncle abruptly bent above 

 the middle ; anthers tapering to a slender entire point ; stigma entire, truncate. 

 S.) distortus, Michx. Uvularia amplexifolia, L.) Cold and moist woods, 

 Northern New England to the mountains of Perm., and northward. June. 

 Stem 2 -3 high, rough at the base, otherwise very smooth. Sepals ' long. 



In this, as in the next, the peduncles are opposite the kaves, rather than truly 

 axillary, and are bent round the clasping base underneath them : they are rarely 

 2-flowered. (Eu.) 



2. S. rose us, Michx. Leaves green both sides, finely ciliate, and the branches 

 sparingly beset with short bristly hairs ; flower rose-purple, more than half the 



