LILT FAMILY. 343 



9. VERATRUM, FALSE HELLEBORE. (Old name, from Latin vere 

 ater, truly black ) Mostly pubescent stout herbs ; the roots yield the acrid 

 poisonous veratrin. Flowers summer. 



V. viride, American White Hellebore, or Indian Poke. Swamps, 

 mostly N. : stout stem 2° -4° high, thickly beset with the broadly oval or ovate 

 strongly plaited sheath-clasping leaves ; panicle of spike-like racemes pyramidal ; 

 flowers yellowish-green turning greener with age. 



V. parviflorum, along the AUeghanies, is slender, 2° -.5° high, with scat- 

 tered oval or lanceolate scarcely plaited leaves below, and a long and loose pan- 

 icle of greenish small flowers turning dingy or brownish with age. 



10. MELANTHIUM. (Name, from the Greek, means Uach flower, the 

 perianth turning darker, yet not black.) Fl. summer. 



M. Virginicuin, Bunch-flower. Moist grounds, from S. New York 

 S. & W. : 3° -5° high; lowest leaves sometimes 1' wide, the upper few and 

 small ; flowers rather large. 



11. ZYGADElfUS. (Name in Greek me,ans;/ofc(/(//nnds.) Fl. summer. 



Z. glab6rrimus. Pine barren bogs S.; l°-3° high, from a running root- 

 stock; leaves rather rigid, keeled, nerved, taper-pointed; panicle many-flowered; 

 divisions of perianth ^-' long, a pair of round spots above the narrowed base. 



Z. glatlCUS. Bogs along our N. borders : l°-3° high, from a bulb ; leaves 

 flat, pale ; flowers rather few ; base of perianth coherent with that of the ovary, 

 the divisions marked with an inversely heart-shaped spot. 



12. XJVULARIA, BELL WORT. (Name from the Latin uvula, or palate ; 

 the application obscure.) Stems 6' -2° high, naked below, leafy above: fl. 

 spring. All in rich woods. ' 



* Leaves ohlonq, the hose clasping round the stem which seems to run through the 



b.'ade just above its base (Lessons, p. 67, fig. 131) : pod 3-lobcd: rootslock 

 very snort and erect. 

 U. grandiflbra, the common one from W. New England W. : with pale 

 greenish-yellow flower 1^' long and smooth or nearly so inside. 



U. perfolikta, common E. & S. : smaller, with sharper tips to the an- 

 thers, and the parts of the barely yellowish perianth granular-roughened inside. 

 U. fl^va, chiefly N. E., with bright yellow flower about 1' long, and nearly 

 smooth inside. 



* # Leaves not sunounding the stem, merely sessile: rootstoch creeping: pod 



sharply triangular. 

 IT. sessilifolia, common, especially N. \ 6' -12' high, with pale lance-ob- 

 long leaves, and whitish cream-colored flower %' long; pod stalked. 



13. CLINTONIA. (Named for DeWitt Clinton of New York.) Cold 

 moist woods : flowers early summer. 



C. boredilis. Only N. and along the mountains; flowers 2-7, greenish 

 yellow, over ^' long ; berry rather many-seeded. 



C. umbell&,ta. Along the AUeghanies ; flowers numerous, i' long, white 

 speckled with green or purplish dots ; seeds only 2 in each coll. 



14. PROSABTES. (Name from Greek word meaning hanging.) 



P. lanugindsa. Rich woods the whole length of the Alleghany region to 

 Canada : branches widely spreading ; leaves ovate-oblong, pointed, rounded or 

 slightly heart-shaped at the sessile base ; flowers ^ long, greenish ; style with 3 

 stigmas : fl. late spring. 



15. STREPTOPUS, TWISTED-STALK (which the name denotes in 

 Greek). In cold damp or wet woods N. : flowers in late spring and early 

 summer, small, barely ^' long. 



