208 POPULAR FLORA.^ 



96. PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY. Order PONTEDERIACEjE. 



Is represented by three or four plants in this country, of which much the commonest 



the 



Pickerel-Aveed. Pontederia. 



Perianth blue, of 6 divisions, unequally united below into a, tube ; the 3 upper divisions most 

 united and making a 3-lobed upper lip, the 3 lower spreading and separate some way down, making 

 a lower lip: after expanding, for one day only, the upper part coils up and withers away, while the 

 base of the tube thickens and encloses the small one-seeded fruit. Stamens 6; the 3 lower on slender 

 projectmg filaments; the 3 upper inserted lower down on the tube, with very short filaments and 

 generally imperfect anthers. Style 1 : stigma 3-lobed. Stout herbs in shallow water, with long- 

 petioled leaves and long peduncles or few-leaved stems {their leaves with sheathing footstalks, the 

 uppermost one merely a sheathing spathe or bract), bearing a spike of flowers. 



I. Common Pickekel-weed. Stems 2° or 3** high; leaves thickish, lance-ovate or ovate-oblong, and 

 generally more or less heart-shaped at the base. Common everywhere; fl. all summer. P. cordaia, 



97. GREENBRIER FAMILY. Order SMILACE^. 

 Of this family, as here arranged, we have only a single genus, viz. : — 



Greenbrier. Smilax. 

 Known at once by being climbing plants (or disposed to climb) and having a tendril on each side 

 of the footstalk of the leaf; and by the leaves being veiny between the ribs, almost as in Exogens, 

 alternate, sometimes evergreen, simple, and entire. Flowers dicecious, in axillary umbels. Perianth 

 generally of 6 equal and spreading greenish or yellowish separate pieces. The sterile flowers have as 

 many stamens, with oblong or linear one-celled anthers fixed by their base to the filament, and turned 

 inwards. The fertile flowers have a round ovary, with 3 short spreading styles or stigmas. Fruit 

 a berry, with 2 or few large seeds. Fl. summer. 



* Stems woody and often prickly, yellowish-green: ovary and berry 2-celled and 2-seeded, black when 

 ripe, generally with a bluish bloom. 



1. Common G. or Catbeier. Leaves thickish, round-ovate or slightly heart-shaped, and with 5 to 



9 ribs, green both sides; branchlets often square; prickles short; peduncles of the umbel not longer 

 than the- petiole. Moist thickets. S. rotundifblia. 



2. Glaucous G. Leaves ovate, glaucous beneath ; peduncles longer than the petiole : otherwise 



nearly as No. 1. S. glauca, 



3. BiiiSTLY G. Leaves ovate and heart-shaped, large and thin, green both sides ; stem below covered 



with long and weak blackish bristly prickles; peduncles much longer than the petioles. Thickets, 

 N. and \\\ S. hispida. 



4. Laurel-leaved G. Not prickly; leaves lance-oblong or lance-linear, thick and evergreen, with 



3 to 5 ribs; peduncles of the umbel very short. Sandy soil, S. 5. laurifblicu 



* * Stem herbaceous, climbing, not prickly: ovary and^^lue-black berry 3-celled, 6-seeded. 

 6. Carkion-flower G. Leaves thin, pale, mostly heart-shaped, -with 7 to 9 ribs, sometimes rather 

 downy beneath, long-petioled ; peduncles 3' to 8' long, longer than the leaves; flowers of the odor 

 of carrion. Meadows and river-banks. q^ herbacea. 



