IBIDACB^E (iris FAMILY) 121 



25. SMILACEAE Vent. Smilax Family 



Shrubby or ours herbaceous plants, climbing or supported by a pair of 

 tendrils on the petiole of the ribbed and netted-veined simple leaves. Flow- 

 ers small, dioecious. , Perianth regular, of 6 similar deciduous sepals, free from 

 ihe ovary, with as many stamens as sepals, and introrse 1-celled anthers. 

 Ovary with 3 ceUs and as many elongated spreading sessile stigmas. 



1. NEMEXIA Raf. Smilax 



Unarmed vines, with knotted or tuberous rootstocks and annual stems. 

 Leaf-blades membranous, broad, sometimes hastate. Umbels on long and 

 slender peduncles. Pedicels inserted in small pits in a conic or globose re- 

 ceptacle. Stamens 6, more or less reduced in pistillate flowers. Ovary 3- 

 celled, wanting in staminate flowers; ovules two m each cavity* Berry blue- 

 black.— tSmieax. 



1. Nemexia herbacea (Li) Sma,ll, Fl. S. E. U. S. 281. 1903. Stems elon- 

 gated, climbing, glabrous: leaves numerous; blades ovate, triangular-lanceolate 

 to lanceolate, essentially alike throughout the plant, 4-8 cm. long, short- 

 acUminate, 7-9-nerved, rounded or truncate at the base: bracts subtending the 

 peduncles like the leaves: peduncles much surpassing the subtending bracts at 

 maturity: flowers carrion-scented: sepals and petals greenish, oblong or 

 broadened upward, acutish: filaments twice or thrice as long as the anthers: 

 berries subglobose, blmSh-black, 6-8 mm. in diameter. Cahrion Flower. — 

 Eastern Wyoming and thence far eastward and northward. 



la. Nemexia herbacea melica A, Nels. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 17: 175. 1904. 

 Very similar but the leaves very thin and more decidedly ovate: peduncles 

 usually shorter; tendrils very slender: flowers sweet or honey-scented. Sweet 

 SmilaxI — In canons; northern Colorado. 



26. IRIDACEAE Lindl. Iris Family 



Perennial herbs, with equitant sheathing 2-ranked linear leaves, and per- 

 fect triandrous regular flowers, the six divisions of the superior perianth petal- 

 like. Flowers showy, few or solitary. Style 3-cleft at the apex. Stamens on 

 the base of the sepals, with extrorse anthers. Ovary 3-celled, becoming a 

 3-16bed; or triangular capsiile with few or many seeds. 



Style branches large and petaloid 1. Iris. 



Style branches filiform 2. Sisyrinchium. 



IRIS L. Flag. Blue Flao 



Stems from usually thickened rootstocks. Flowers large and showy, solitary 

 or few in a forked corymb. Perianth tube prolonged above the ovary. Sta- 

 mens benea^th the arching^ petal-like branches of the style; filaments dis- 

 tinct. Base of the style connate with the perianth tube; the divisions 

 Stigtiiatic at the thin apex, above which is a broad 2-parted crest, which is 

 decurrent on the inner side to the base of the style. Capsule oblong. Seeds 

 numerous, flattened. 



1. Iris missouriensis Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phila. 7: 58. 1834. Stem slender, 

 the leaves few, mostly ba^al, shorter than the stem: flowers 1-2, w;ith scarious 

 dilated bracts, light blue; parts of the flower 5-7 cm. long: capsule oblong, 

 obtusely angled, 2-3 cm. long. (/. pelogonm L. N. Good. Bot. Gaz. 33: 68. 

 1902.) — Frequent on wet lands throughout our range; not rarely also op 

 sandy hillsides. 



