518 SMILACEJE. (SMILAX FAMILY). 



ORDER 119. DIOSCOREACE^E. (YAM FAMILY.) 



Plants with twining stems from large tuberous roots or knotted rootstocks, 

 and ribbed and netted-veined petioled leaves, small dioecious 6-androus and 

 regular flowers, with the Q-cleft calyx-like perianth adherent in the fertile 

 plant to the ^-celled ovary. Styles 3, distinct. Ovules 1 or 2 in each cell, 

 anatropous. Fruit usually a membranaceous 3-angled or winged pod. 

 Seeds with a minute embryo in hard albumen. Represented chiefly by 

 the genus 



1. BIOS CORE A, Plumier. YAM. 



Flowers very small, in axillary panicles or racemes. Stamens 6, at the base 

 of the divisions of the 6-parted perianth. Pod 3-celled, 3-winged, loculicidally 

 3-valved by splitting through the winged angles. Seeds 1 or 2 in each cell, flat, 

 with a membranaceous wing. (Dedicated to the Greek naturalist, Dioscorides.) 



1. D. Vlllbsa, L. (WILD YAM-ROOT.) Herbaceous; leaves mostly alter- 

 nate, sometimes nearly opposite or in fours, more or less downy underneath, 

 heart-shaped, conspicuously pointed, 9 - 1 1 -rib bed ; flowers pale greenish-yellow, 

 the sterile in drooping panicles, the fertile in drooping simple racemes. Thick- 

 ets, New England to Wisconsin, and common southward. July. Stems 

 slender, from knotty and matted rootstocks, twining over bushes. Pods 8" - 10" 

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



ORDER 120. SMIL.ACEJE. (SMILAX FAMILY.) 



Shrubby or rarely herbaceous plants, climbing or supported by a pair of 

 tendrils on the petiole of the ribbed and netted-veined simple leaves ; with 

 dioecious small flowers ; regular perianth of 6 (rarely more} similar greenish 

 deciduous sepals, free from the ovary ; as many stamens as sepals, with in- 

 trorse \-celled anthers ; ovary with 3 (rarely 1 or 4 - 6) cells and as many 

 elongated spreading sessile stigmas. Ovules one or a pair in each cell, 

 suspended, orthotropous. Fruit a small berry. Seed-coat close, firmly 

 adherent to the hard horny albumen : embryo minute. Order, as here 

 limited, represented almost solely by the genus 



1. SMILAX, Tourn. GREENBRIEE. CATBRIER. 



Character as above. Flowers in umbels on axillary peduncles, greenish or 

 yellowish. Ster. FL Stamens inserted on the very base of the sepals : filaments 

 linear : anthers linear or oblong, fixed by the base, 2-locellate. Pert. FL Fila- 

 ments, if present, sterile. Stigmas thick and spreading, almost sessile. (The 

 ancient Greek name, of obscure meaning.) 



1. Stems woody, often prickly : ovules solitary. (Ours all glabrous.) 



* Leaves ovate or roundish, frc., most of them rounded or heart-shaped at the base, 



and 5 - 9-nerved, the three middle nerves or ribs stronger and more conspicuous. 



