526 LILIACE^E. (LILY FAMILY.) 



ers; sepals dingy-green, oblanceolate or spatulate (2" -3' long), those of the 

 sterile flowers on claws, widely spreading. (Melanthium monoicum, Walt. 

 Leimanthiura monoicum, Gray.) Mountains of Virginia and southward. 



3. V. Woodii, Robbins. Leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate ; pedicels 

 (1^"- 3" long) shorter than the flowers, the oblanceolate spreading sepals (3" -4" 

 long) dingy green turning brownish purple within : otherwise much as in the last, 

 of which it may be a variety ; but the flowers are mostly double the size, and 

 the panicle stouter. (Plant 3 -6 high.) Woods and hilly barrens, Green 

 Co., Indiana, Wood. Augusta, Illinois, Mead. 



7. AMIANTHITJM, Gray. FLY-POISON. 



Flowers perfect. Perianth widely spreading ; the distinct and free petal-like 

 (white) sepals oval or obovate, without claws or glands, persistent. Filaments 

 capillary, equalling or exceeding the perianth. Anthers, pods, &c., nearly as in 

 Melanthium. Styles thread-like. Seeds wingless, oblong or linear, with a loose 

 coat, 1 -4 in each cell. Glabrous, with simple stems from a bulbous base or 

 coated bulb, scape-like, few-leaved, terminated by a simple dense raceme of hand- 

 some flowers, turning greenish with age. Leaves linear, keeled, grass-like. 

 (From duiavros, unspotted, and avQos, flower ; a name formed with more regard 

 to euphony than to good construction, alluding to the glandless perianth.) 



1. A. muSC8et6xicum, Gray. (FLY-PoiSON.) Leaves broadly linear, 

 elongated, obtuse ('-!' wide); raceme simple; pod abruptly 3-horned; seeds 

 oblong, with a fleshy red coat. (Helonias erythrosperma, Michx.) Open 

 woods, New Jersey and Penn. to Kentucky and southward. June, July. 



8. XEROPHYLLUM, Michx. XEROPHYLLUM. 



Flowers perfect. Perianth widely spreading; sepals petal-like (white), oval, 

 distinct, without glands or claws, at length withering, about the length of the 

 awl-shaped filaments. Anthers 2-celled, short, extrorse. Styles thread-like, 

 stigmatic down the inner side. Pod globular, 3-lobed, obtuse (small), loculici- 

 dal ; the valves bearing the partitions. Seeds 2 in each cell, collateral, 3-an- 

 gled, not margined. Herb with the aspect of an Asphodel ; the stem simple, 

 l-4 high, from a bulbous base, bearing a simple compact raceme of showy 

 white flowers, thickly beset with needle-shaped leaves, the upper ones reduced 

 to bristle-like bracts ; those from the root very many in a dense tuft, reclined, a 

 foot or more long, 1' wide below, rough on the margin, remarkably dry and rigid 

 (whence the name from ^pos, arid, and <uAXoi>, leaf). 



1. X. asphodeloides, Nutt. (X. tenax, Nutt. X. setifolium, Michx. 

 Helonias asphodelioides, L.) Pine barrens, New Jersey and southward: also 

 far westward. June. 



9. HELONIAS, L. HELONIAS. 



Flowers perfect. Perianth of 6 spatulate-oblong purple sepals, persistent, 

 turning green, shorter than the thread-like filaments. Anthers 2-celled, round- 

 ish-oval, blue, extrorse. Styles revolute, stigmatic down the inner side. Pod 



