478 MELANTHACE^. ^OOLCHICUM FAMILY.) 



lO. HEl,6lVIAS, L. Helonias. 



Flowers perfect. Perianth of 6 spatulate-oblong (purplish tnrning greenish) 

 sepals, persistent, shorter than the thread-like filaments. Anthers 2-celled, 

 roundish-oval, blue. Styles revolute, stigmatic do^vn the inner side. Pod ob- 

 cordatcly 3-lobed, loculicidally 3-valved; the valves divergently 2-lobed. Seeds 

 many in each cell, linear, with a tapering appendage at both ends. — A smooth 

 perennial, with many oblanceolate or oblong-spatulate flat leaves, from a tuber- 

 ous rootstock, producing in early spring a hollow naked scape (l°-2°high), 

 sheathed with broad bracts at the base, and terminated by a simple and short 

 dense raceme. Bracts obsolete : pedicels shorter than the flowers. (Name 

 probably from eXoy, a swamp ; the place of growth.) 



1. H. bullata, L. (H. latifolia, Midix.) — Wet places. New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, and Virginia : rare. May. 



H, CHAniiBI>iRIUM, WiUd. Devil's-Bit. 



Flowers dioecious. Perianth of 6 spatulate-linear (white) spreading sepals, 

 withering-persistent. Filaments and (yellow) antliers as in Helonias : fertile 

 flowers with rudimentary stamens. Styles linear-club-shaped, stigmatic along 

 the inner side. Pod ovoid-oblong, not lobed, of a thin texture, loculicidally 3- 

 valved from the apex, many-seeded. Seeds linear-oblong, conspicuously winged 

 at each end. — A smooth herb, with a wand-like stem from a (bitter) thick and 

 abrupt tuberous rootstock, terminated by a long and wand-like spiked raceme 

 (4' - 9' long) of small bractless flowers ; the fertile plant more leafy than the 

 staminate. Leaves flat, lanceolate, the lowest spatulate, tapering into a petiole. 

 (Name composed of ^a^ial, on the ground, and XdptoVy lily ; of no obvious appli- 

 cation.) 



1. C. luteiiin. (Blazino-Stak.) (C. Carolinianum, 'PFiiW. Veratrum 

 luteura, £. Helonias lutea, 4it. H. dioica, PursA.) — Low grounds, W. New 

 England to Illinois, and southward. June. 



12. TOFIEliDIA, Hudson. False Asphodel. 



Flowers perfect, usually with a little 3-bract€d involucre underaeath. Peri- 

 anth more or less spreading ; the sepals (white or greenish) concave, oblong or 

 obovate, sessile. Filaments awl-shaped : anthers short, innate or somewhat 

 introrse, 2-c,ellcd. Styles awl-shaped : stigmas terminal. Pod 3-angular, 3- 

 paitible or septicidal ; the cells many-seeded. Seeds oblong. — Slender peren- 

 nials, mostly tufted, with fibrous rooits, and simple scape-like stems leafy only 

 at the base, bearing small flowers in a close raceme or spike.' Leaves 2-ranked, 

 equitant, linear. (Named after Mr. Tojield, an English botanist of the last cen- 

 tury.) — The two following compose the subgenus TRLA-NTHA, Nutt. . pedi- 

 cels mostly in threes; the flowering proceeding from the apex downwards; 

 seeds tail-pointed at both ends. 



1. T. ^Illtinosa, Willd. Stem (6'- 16' high) and pedicels very yu(MO!« 

 with dark glands; leaves broadly linear, short. — Moist grounds, Maine, Michi- 

 gan, Wisconsin, and northward : also southward in the AUeghanies. June. 



