ILLECEBEACEiE. 183 



SAIRI; Rl s, L. LIZARD'S TAIL. 



S. eer'llUUS, L. A swamp herb, with jointed branching 

 stem, 2 feet high. Leaves petioled, heart-shaped, with con- 

 verging ribs. Flowers white, in a dense terminal spike, 

 nodding at the end, each flower with a lanceolate bract. 

 Flowers perfect, but entirely destitute of calyx and corolla. 

 Stamens usually 6 or 7, with long slender white filaments. 

 Carpels 3 or 4, slightly united at the base. 



ORDER LXXV. PHYTOLACCA'CE^. (POKEWEED F.) 



Herbs with alternate leaves and perfect flowers, resemb- 

 ling in most respects the plants of the next Order, but the 

 ovary is composed of several carpels in a ring, forming a 

 berry in fruit. Only one Genus and one Species. 



PHYTOLAC'CA, Tourn. POKEWEED. 



P. deean'dra, L. (COMMON POKE.) Calyx of 5 rounded 

 white sepals. Ovary green, of ten 1-seeded carpels united in 

 a ring. Styles 10, short and separate. Stamens 10. Fruit 

 a crimson or purple 10-seeded berry. Stem very tall and 

 stout, smooth. Flowers in long racemes opposite the leaves. 

 Sandy soil. 



ORDER LXXV. ILLECEBRA'CEvE. (KNOTWORT FAMILY.) 



Small diffuse or tufted herbs, with mostly opposite and 

 entire leaves, scarious stipules, and a 4-5-toothed or parted 

 coriaceous persistent calyx. Petals wanting. Stamens 

 perigynous, as many as the lobes of the calyx and opposite 

 them, or fewer. Style 2-cleft at the apex. Fruit a 1-seeded 

 utricle. 



PARONYCH'IA, Tourn. WHITLOW-WORT. 



P. sessiliflo'ra, Nutt. Flowers terminal, solitary, sessile. 

 Stems densely matted or tufted, from a woody root. The 

 dry, silvery stipules 2-cleft. Sepals oblong-linear, concave, 

 awned at the apex. N. W. prairies. 



