330 SMILAS FAMILY. 



T^mus eleph&ntipes, or TestddinXria elaphantipes, of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, is a curiosity in consen'atories ; 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. (Named for Dioscorides.) Flowers in axillary 

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

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

 Fl. summer. ^ 



D. villbsa, Wild Yam ; sends up from 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 

 U not a good one 



D. Batatas (orD. jAP6NiCAof some), Chinese Yam: cnlt. 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 bnlblets in the axils. 



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



123. SMILACE.ffi, SMILAX FAMILY. 



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

 supported by a pair of tendrils on the sides of the petioler having 

 ribbed and netted-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 fryift is a ierry ; the an- 

 thers are only 1-celled, opening by one lon^tudinal slit (the division 

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



1. SMILAX, GKEENBRIEU, CA O jMWtR, or'T^HIlS^^RIEK. (An- 

 cient Greek name.) All wild s]geia^^m thickets and low gSWiinds ; flowers 

 small, greenish, in clusters on S^j/ntitry peduncles, in summer, or several of 

 the Southern prickly ones in spring. , ., 



§ 1 . Stems wood 11, ojlen prickly : ovules and seeds only one in each cell. 

 * Smooth, and the leaves often glossy, 5 - 9-ribbed : stigmas and cells of ovary 3. 



■f- Berries red : peduncles - short : leaves 5-rihbed: prickles hardly any. 



S. lanceol^ta, from Virginia S. ; climbs high; leaves evergreen, lance- 

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



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

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



■<- Beiries black, often with a bloom : leaves mostly roundish or somewhat heart- 

 shaped at base : peduncles almost always flat. 



S. rotundifdlia, Common Geeenbriee. Yellowish-green, often high- 

 climbing; branchlets more or less squai-e, 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. glaiica. Mostly S. of New York : like the preceding, but less prickly, 

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

 and peduncles longer than petiole. 



S. tamnoides. New Jersey to LI. and S. ; differs from preceding in the 

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

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



S. PseudO-Cnina, China-Beiee; from New Jersey and Kentucky S.: 

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

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

 peduncles 2' -3' long. 



