SMILACE^. (SMILAX FAMILY.) 46] 



neath, heart-shaped, conspiouonsly pointed, 9 - U-ribbed ; flowers pale greenish- 

 yellow, the sterile in drooping panicles, the fertile in drooping simple racemes. 

 — Thickets, New England to Wisconsin, and common southward. July. — A 

 slender vine, from knotty and matted rootstocks, twining over bushes. Pods i' 

 long. — A bad name, for the plant is never villous, and often nearly smooth. 



Okdeb 125. SMILACE^. (Smilax Family.) 



Herbs, or climbing shrubby plants, with ribbed and conspicuously netted- 

 veiny leaves, regular 6- W-androus flowers with the S-104eaved perianth 

 free from the 8 - b-ceUed (rarely 1 - 2-celled) ovary; the styles or sessile stig- 

 mas as many and distinct. Anthers introrse. Fruit a few - several-seeded 

 berry. Embryo minute, in hard albumen. — A group with no known and 

 clear marks of distinction from the next : as here received it comprises two 

 marked suborders, viz. : — 



Suborder I. EUSMILACE.a;. The True Smilax Family. 



Flowers dioecious, axillary ; the 6 divisions of the perianth all alike. 

 Anthers 1-celled (2-locellate) . Styles nearly wanting : stigmas 2-3. 

 Seeds orthotropous, pendulous. — Chiefly shrubby and alternate-leaved. 



1. SMILAX. Perianth of 6 disHnct and similar diTisions. Ovules solitary, laiely 2 in each 



cell. 



Suborder II. TEILLIACE.a;. The Trillium Family. 



Flowers perfect, terminal : the sepals and petals usually different in col- 

 or. Anthers 2-ceUed. Styles manifest. Seeds anatropous, several in 

 each cell. Herbs : leaves whorled. 



2. TRILLIUM. Sepala 3, green, persistent Petals 3. Flower single. 



3. MEDEOLA. Sepals and petals 3, colored alike, deciduous, flowers umbelled. 



Suborder I. EUS]THr.ACEJE. The True Smilax Family. 



1. SMILiAX, Toum. Grebnbbiee. Catbriek. 



Flowers dioecious. Perianth of 6 (rarely 5 or 7) equal spreading sepals 

 (greenish or yellowish), deciduous. Ster. Fl. Stamens as many as the sepals, 

 and at their base : filaments linear : anthers linear or oblong, fixed by the base. 

 Fert. Fl, Filaments, if present, sterile. Stigmas thick and spreading, almost 

 sessile. Berry globular, 1 - 3-celled, 1 - 6-seeded. Seeds orthotropous, sus- 

 pended, globular. Albumen horny. — Shrubs, or rarely perennial herbs, often 

 evergreen and prickly, climbing by a pair of tendrils on the petioles, with yel- 

 lowish-green stems, variously shaped simple leaves, and small flowers in axillary 

 peduncled umbels. (The ancient Greek name, of obscure meaning.) 



i 1. SMILAX Pl.OPEB. — Stems woody, often priddy : ovules and seeds solitary in 

 eacli cell. (AU our species are glabrous.) 

 39* 



