514 ELEMODORACF^E. (BLOODWORT FAMILY.) 



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

 1 - 4-fiowered scape ; divisions of the perianth hairy and greenish outside, yel- 

 low within. Meadows and open woods : common. June - Aug. 



ORDER 116, H^EUIODORACE^E. (BLOODWORT FAMILY.) 



Herbs, with fibrous roots, usually equitant leaves, and perfect 3-6-androus 

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

 perianth 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 ; chiefly of the 

 Southern hemisphere. 



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



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



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



2. Lophiola. Stamens 6, on the base of the woolly 6-cleft perianth. Leaves equitant. 



3. Aletris. Stamens 6, in the throat of the warty-roughened and tubular 6-toothed 



perianth. Leaves flat. 



1. LACHNANTHES, L. RED-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 \dxvrj-, wool, and avQos, blossom). 



1. L. tinct6ria, Ell. Sandy swamps, from Rhode Island and New Jersey 

 southward, near the coast. July - Sept. 



2. LOPHIOLA, 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 also the crowded or panicled cyme. Perianth dingy yellow in- 

 side ; the lobes naked only towards the tip, each clothed with a woolly tuft 

 towards the base (whence the name from Aoc^etoi/, a small crest.) 



1. L. aurea, Ker. ( Condstylis Americana, Pursh.) Boggy pine barrens, 

 New Jersey to Virginia, and southward. June - Aug. 



