THE YAM FAMILY. 69 



THE YAH FAHILY. 



/h'oscorCiU'Ca\ 



WILD YAM=ROOT. 



Dioscorea villosa. 



Flcnvers : small ; dicEcious ; regular ; growing in axillary drooping panicles or in 

 spike-like racemes. Perianth: divided into six segments. Capsule: large; nod- 

 ding ; rounded, with three flaring, membraneous wings. Leaves : simple ; alter- 

 nate ; or the lower ones o])posite, with long smooth petioles ; cordate ; seven to 

 thirteen nerved ; entire; bright green and glabrous above, paler below and covered 

 with a white pubescence ; thin. A woody, twining vine, five to fifteen feet long; 

 glabrous. Rootstock : woody ; tuberous. 



Incur species, the wild yam root, are typified the leading characteristics 

 of the {'AVi\\\^ Dioscoreacecu, which has been so named in honour of the Greek 

 physician and eminent writer on plants, Dioscorides, who lived in the time 

 of Nero. Along the moist thickets of river banks and by the margins of 

 swamps it occurs as a rather common and graceful vine, becoming most 

 decorative in the winter when its inconspicuous flowers have been re- 

 placed by showy racemes of curiously winged fruit. In the autumn the 

 country people collect the rhizomes as they have some efficacy in a medicinal 

 way. 



Of a number of the tropical species the rootstocks are very large and 

 fleshy and are the " yams," which are so much prized as articles of food. 



THE IRIS FAHILY. 



Iriddcca:. 



Herbs with equitaiit^ narroiv leaves, and f>crfeefy regular, or irregular 

 flowers subtended by braets and ic/iic/i grozo singly or in e/iisters. Peri- 

 anth : with six lobes or segments. 



DWARF IRIS. 



Iris 7'th-na. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Iris. Blue or purple witJi Fragra)it. Ctori;ia and Kcn~ April, .May. 



yell 07V mar icings. tttcky to Pennsyhumia. 



Flcnvers : usually solitary and growing at the end of the flower stalk, which is 

 sheathed and from one to four inches high. Periafit/i: with six nearly equal, obovate 



