478 MELANTHACE^E. (COLCH1CUM FAMILY.) 



1O. H EL ONI AS, L. HELONIAS. 



Flowers perfect. Perianth of 6 spatulate-oblong (purplish taming greenish) 

 sepals, persistent, shorter than the thread-like filaments. Anthers 2-celled, 

 roundish-oval, blue. Styles revolute, stigmatic down the inner side. Pod ob- 

 cordatcly 3-lobed, loculicidally 3-valved ; the valves divergently 2-lobed. Seeds 

 many in each cell, linear, with a tapering appendage at both ends. A smooth 

 perennial, with many oblanceolate or oblong-spatulate flat leaves, from a tuber- 

 ous rootstock, producing in early spring a hollow naked scape (l-2 high), 

 sheathed with broad bracts at the base, and terminated by a simple and short 

 dense raceme. Bracts obsolete: pedicels shorter than the flowers. (Name 

 probably from eAos, a swamp ; the place of growth.) 



1. H. bullata, L. (H. latifolia, Michx.) -Wet places, New Jersey. 

 Pennsylvania, and Virginia : rare. May. 



11. CHAMJEL.IRIUM, Willd. DEVIL'S-BIT. 



Flowers dioecious. Perianth of 6 spatulate-linear (white) spreading sepals, 

 withering-persistent. Filaments and (yellow) anthers as in Helonias : fertile 

 flowers with rudimentary stamens. Styles linear-club-shaped, stigmatic along 

 the inner side. Pod ovoid-oblong, not lobed, of a thin texture, loculicidally 3- 

 valved from the apex, many-seeded. Seeds linear-oblong, conspicuously winged 

 at each end. A smooth herb, with a wand-like stem from a (bitter) thick and 

 abrupt tuberous rootstock, terminated by a long and wand-like spiked raceme 

 (4' - 9' long) of small bractless flowers ; the fertile plant more leafy than tha 

 staminate. Leaves flat, lanceolate, the lowest spatulate, tapering into a petiole. 

 (Name composed of x a P a ^ on ( ^ e 5^' OMWC ?> an d Xetptoi/, lily ; of no obvious appli- 

 cation.) 



1. C. I lit CM 111. (BLAZING-STAR.) (C. Carolinianum, Willd. Veratram 

 luteum, L. Helonias lutea, Ait. H. dioica, Pursh.) Low grounds, W. New 

 England to Illinois, and southward. June. 



12. TOFI12LDIA, Hudson. FALSE ASPHODEL. 



Flowers perfect, usually with a little 3-bracted involucre underneath. Peri- 

 anth more or less spreading; the sepals (white or greenish) concave, oblong or 

 obovate, sessile. Filaments awl-shaped: anthers short, innate or somewhat 

 introrse, 2-celled. Styles awl-shaped : stigmas terminal. Pod 3-angular, 3- 

 partible or septicidal ; the cells many-seeded. Seeds oblong. Slender peren- 

 nials, mostly tufted, with fibrous roots, and simple scape-like stems leafy only 

 at the base, bearing small flowers in a close raceme or spike. Leaves 2-ranked, 

 equitant, linear. (Named after Mr. Tqfield, an English botanist of the last cen- 

 tury.) The two following compose the subgenus TRIANTHA, Nutt. : pedi- 

 cels mostly in threes; the flowering proceeding from the apex downwards; 

 seeds tail-pointed at both ends. 



1. T. gllltilldsa, Willd. Stem (6' -16' high) and pedicels very glutinous 

 with dark glands ; leaves broadly linear, short. Moist grounds, Maine, Michi- 

 gan, Wisconsin, and northward : also southward in the Alleghanies. June. 



