524 LILIACE^E. (LILY FAMILY.) 



rootstock (which has the taste of cucumber), bearing near the middle a whorl 

 of 5 - 9 obovate-lanceolate and pointed, sessile, lightly parallel-ribbed and 

 netted-veiny, thin leaves ; also another of 3 (rarely 4 or 5) much smaller ovate 

 ones at the top, subtending a sessile umbel of small recurved flowers. (Named 

 after the sorceress Medea, from the wholly imaginary notion that it possesses 

 great medicinal virtues.) 



1. M. Virginica, L. (Gyrbmia, Nutt.) — Rich damp woods. June. 



3. MELANTHIUM, Gronov., L. Melantiiium. 



Flowers monoeciously polygamous. Perianth of 6 separate and free widely 

 spreading somewhat heart-shaped or oblong and halberd-shaped sepals, raised 

 on slender claws, cream-colored, the base marked with 2 approximate or conflu- 

 ent glands, turning greenish-brown and persistent. Filaments shorter than the 

 sepals, adhering to their claws often to near their summit, persistent. Anthers 

 heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, confluently 1-celled, shield-shaped after opening, 

 extrorse. Styles 3, awl-shaped, diverging, tipped with simple stigmas. Pod 

 ovoid-conical, 3-lobed, of 3 inflated membranaceous carpels united in the axis, 

 separating when ripe, and splitting down the inner edge, several-seeded. Seeds 

 flat, broadly winged. — Stem simple (3° -5° high), from a somewhat bulbous 

 base, roughish-downy above, as well as the open and ample pyramidal panicle 

 (composed chiefly of simple racemes), the terminal part mostly fertile. Leaves 

 lanceolate or linear, grass-like, those from the root broader. (Name composed of 

 fieXas, black, and avdos, flower, from the darker color which the persistent peri- 

 anth assumes after blossoming; but the name is hardly warranted.) 



1. M. Virginicum, L. (Bunch-flower.) (M. Virginicum & race- 

 mosum, Mlchx. Leimanthium Virginicum, Willd. L. Virginicum & hybridum, 

 Roem. §• Schult., Gray, Melanth.) — Wet meadows, from Southern New York to 

 Illinois, and common southward. July. 



4. ZYGADENUS, Michx. Ztgadene. 



Flowers perfect or polygamous. Perianth withering-persistent, spreading; 

 the petal-like oblong or ovate sepals 1 -2-glandular next the more or less nar- 

 rowed, but not unguiculate base, which is either free, or united and coherent 

 with the base of the ovary. Stamens free from the sepals and about their length. 

 Anthers, styles, and pod nearly as in Melanthium. Seeds margined or slightly 

 winged. — Very smooth and somewhat glaucous perennials, with simple stems 

 from creeping rootstocks or coated bulbs, linear leaves, and pretty large panicled 

 greenish-white flowers; in summer. (Name composed of £vyos, a yoke, and 

 ddrjv, a gland, the glands being in pairs.) 



* Glands on the perianth conspicuous. 



1. Z. glaberrimus, Michx. Stems 1°- 3° high from a creeping rootstorl ; 

 leaves grass-like, channelled, conspicuously nerved, elongated, tapering to a point ; 

 panicle pyramidal, many-flowered ; perianth nearly free; the sepals (£' long) 

 ovate, becoming lance-ovate, with a pair of 'orbicular glands above the short claw-like 

 base. — Grassy low grounds, Virginia (Pursh) and southward. 



