ENDOGENOUS OK MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



493 



consists of low 



plants. Ex. Smilax (Greenbrier, &c.) ; far the most important 

 species is S. officinalis of tropical America, the rootstocks of which 

 are the officinal SarsapariRa. 



948. Subord. TrllliaceBB {Trillium Family) 

 herbs, with whorled leaves and per- 

 fect flowers, which in the largest 

 genus, Trillium, have a green calyx 

 and a colored corolla; the anthers 

 are two-celled ; the seeds anatropous 

 and rather numerous. — The short 

 rootstock of Trillium (Fig. 169), 

 called Birthroot, has a place in the 

 popular materia medica ; but it is 

 doubtful if it really possesses any 

 useful properties. 



949. Ord. LiliaceiB {Lily Family). 



Herbs, 

 with the flower-stems springing from bulbs, 

 tubers, or with fibrous or fascicled roots. 

 Leaves simple, sheathing or clasping at the 

 base, parallel-veined. Flowers regular, per- 

 fect. Perianth colored, mostly of six parts, 

 or six-cleft. Stamens six: anthers introrse. 

 Ovary free, three-celled : the styles united into one. Fruit capsular- 

 or baccate, with several or numerous seeds in each cell. Albumen 

 fleshy. — This large and widely diffijsed order comprises a great 

 variety of forms : the Lily,T)og-tooth Violet, and Tulip represent one 

 division ; the Tuberose, a second ; the Aloe and Yucca, a third ; 

 the Hyacinth, the Onion, Leek, and Garlic (AlUum), and the As- 

 phodel, a fourth'; the Asparagus, Lily of the Valley, and Solomon's 

 Seal, a fifth, which is nearly allied to the order Smilaceas. Acrid 

 and often bitter principles prevail in the order, and are most concen- 

 trated in the bulbs, &c., which abound in starchy or mucilaginous 

 matter, and are often edible when cooked. Squills are the bulbs of 

 Scilla maritima of the South of Europe. Aloes is the acrid and. 

 bitter inspissated juice of the succulent leaves of species of Aloe. 

 The original DragorC s-hlood was derived from the juice of the fa- 

 mous Dragon-tree (Dracsena Draco) of the East. — The leaves 

 of Phormium tenax yield the New Zealand hemp, one of the 



FIG. 1245. A flower of Trillium erectum ; a front view, 1246. A diagram of the same. 



42 



