208 POPULAR FLORA. 



96. PICKEEEL-WEED FAMILY. Order PONTEDERIACE^. 

 Is represented by three or four plants in this country, of which much the commonest 

 is the 



Pickerel-weed. Pontederia. 

 Perianth blue, of 6 divisions, unequally united below into -i tube ; the 3 upper divisions most 

 united and making a 8-lobed upper Up, the 3 lower spreading and separate some way down, making 

 a lower lip: after expanding, for one day only, the upper part coils up and withers away, while the 

 base of the tube thickens and encloses the small one-seeded fruit. Stamens C; the 3 lower on slender 

 projectmg filaments; the 3 upper inserted lower down on the tube, with very short filaments and 

 generally imperfect anthers. Style 1 : stigma 3-lobed. Stout herbs in shallow "water, with long- 

 petioled leaves and long peduncles or few-leaved stems (their leaves with sheathing footstalks, the 

 uppermost one merely a sheathing spathe or bract), bearing a spike of flowers. 



1. CoMniON PiCKEKEL-WEED. Stems 2" Or 3° high; leaves thickish, lance-ovate or ovate-oblong, and 

 genei'ally more or less heart-shaped at the base. Common everywhere; fl. all summer. P. cordata. 



97. GREENBRIER FAMILY. Order SMILACEJi:. 

 Of this family, as here arranged, we have only a single genus, viz. : — 



Greenbrier. Smilax. 

 Known at once by being climbing plants (or disposed to climb) and having a tendril on each side 

 of the footstalk of the leaf; and by the leaves being veiny between tlie ribs, almost as in Exogens, 

 alternate, sometimes evergreen, simple, and entire. Flowers dicecious, in axillary umbels. Perianth 

 generally of equal and spreading greenish or yellowish separate pieces. The sterile flowers have as 

 many stamens, with oblong or linear one-celled anthers fixed by their base to the filament, and turned 

 inwards. The fertile flowers have a round ovai-y, with 3 short spreading styles or stigmas. Fruit 

 a berry, with 2 or few large seeds. Fl. summer. 



* Stems woody and often prickly, yellowish-green: ovary and berry 2-ceIled and 2-seeded, black when 

 ripe, generally with a bluish bloom. 



1. Common G. or Catbeier. Leaves thickish, round-ovate or slightly heart-shnped, and with 5 to 



9 ribs, green both sides ; branchlets often square ; prickles short ; peduncles of the umbel not longer 

 than the petiole. Moist thickets. S. rctundifdUa* 



2. Glaucous G. Leaves ovate, glaucous beneath ; peduncles longer than the petiole : otherwise 



nearly as No. 1. S. glauca. 



8. BuiSTLY G. Leaves ovate and heart-shaped, large and thin, green both sides; stem below covered 

 with long and weak blackish bristly prickles ; peduncles much longer than the petioles. Thickets, 

 N. and \V. S. Mspida. 



4. Laueel-leaa'ed G. Not prickly; leaves lance-oblong or lance-linear, thick and evergi-een, with 

 3 to 5 ribs; peduncles of the umbel very short. Sandy soil, S. S. Inurifblia. 



* * Stem herbaceous, climbing, not prickly : ovary and blue-black berry 3-celled 6-seeded. 



B. Carriok-flowei; G. Leaves thin, pale, mostly heart-shaped, with 7 to 9 ribs, sometimes rather 

 downy beneath, long-petioled; peduncles 3' to 8' long, longer than the leaves; flowers of the odor 

 of carrion. Meadows and river-banks. 5. herbacea. 



