336 SMILAX FAMILY. 



T&mUS eleph&ntipes, or TestudinXria elaphantipes, of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, is a curiosity in conservatories; the globular or hemispherical 

 trunk, resting on the ground, covered with very thick bark soon cracked into 

 separate portions, and resembling the back of a tortoise ; out of it spring every 

 year slender twining stems, bearing rounded heart-shaped or kidney-shaped leaves. 



1. DIOSCOREA, Yam, &c. (Named for Dioscoricfes.) Flowers in axillary 

 panicles or racemes : stamens 6 in the sterile ones, separate, Fertile ones 

 producing a 3-celled 3-winged pod, when lipe splitting through the wings. 

 Fl. summer. 2/ 



D. villdsa. Wild Yam : sends up fi-om a knotty rootstock its slender 

 stems, bearing heart-shaped pointed leaves, either alternate, opposite, or some 

 in fours, 9-11-ribbed and with prominent cross-veinlets. In thickets, com- 

 moner S. : slightly downy, or usually almost smooth, so that the specific name 

 is not a good one 



D. Batatas (orD. Jap6nica of some), Chinese Yam: cult, from China 

 and Japan, for ornament, or for its very deep and long farinaceous roots, — 

 a substitute for potatoes, if one could only dig them ; with very smooth heart- 

 shaped partly halberd-shaped opposite leaves, and produces bulblets in the axils. 

 D. satlva, True Yam, with great thick roots, is only of hot climates. 



123. SMILACE^, SMILAX FAMILY. 



Chiefly woody-stemmed plants, a few herbaceous, climbing or 

 supported by a pair of tendrils on the sides of the petiole, having 

 ribbed and nelted-veined leaves and small dioecious flowers, as in the 

 foregoing ;. but the ovary is free from the perianth, bears mostly 3 

 long and diverging sessile stigmas, and in fruit is a berry ; the an- 

 thers are only 1-celled, opening by one longitudinal slit (the division 

 of the cell, if any, corresponding with the slit). Consists of the genus 



1. SMILAX, GREEKBRIER, CATBRIER, or CHINA-BRIER. (An- 

 cient Greek name.) All wild species, in thickets and low grounds ; flowers 

 small, greenish, in clusters on axillary peduncles, in summer, or several of 

 the .'southern prickly oftes in spring. 



§ 1 . Steins woody, ojlen prickly : ovules and seeds only one in each cell. 



* Smooth, and the leaves oJlen glossy, 5-9-ribbed: stigmas and cells ofovai-y 3. 



<- BcTiies red : peduncles short: leaves 5-rihbed: prickles hardly any. 



S. laneeolita, from Virginia S. . climbs high ; leaves evergreen, lance- 

 ovate or lanceolate, acute at both ends ; rootstock tuberous. 



S. W41teri, from New Jersey S. ; 6° high ; leaves deciduous, ovate or 

 lance-oval, roundish or slightly heart-shaped; peduncles flat; rootstock creeping. 



-1- Berries black, often with a bloom : leaves mostly roundish or somewhat /leart- 

 shaped at base : peduncles almost always flat. 



S. rotundif61ia, Common Greenbrier. Yellowish-green, often high- 

 climbing; branchlets more or less square, armed with scattered prickles ; leaves 

 ovate or round-ovate, thickish, green both sides, 2' -3' long; peduncles few- 

 flowered, not longer than the petioles. 



S. glauca. Mostly S. of New York : like the preceding, but less prickly, 

 the ovate loaves glaucous beneath and seldom at all heart-shaped, smooth edged, 

 and peduncles longer than petiole. 



S. tamnoides. New Jersey to 111. and S. : diflfers from preceding in the 

 leaves varying from round-heart-shaped to fiddle-shaped and halberd-shaped, 

 green both sides, pointed, and the edges often sparsely bristly.. 



S. Pseudo-China, China-Brier ; from Ncav Jersey and Kentucky S. : 

 rootstock tuberous ; prickles none or rare ; leaves ovate and heart-shaped, grcfu 

 both sides, often contracted in the middle, and rough-ciliate, 3' -5' Ion-'; flat 

 peduncles 2' -3' long. ° 



