smilax SMIL ACE M 637 



solitary, leafy at base : leaves linear, 2-6 inches long, 1-2 lines wide : 

 spathes 1-4-flowered, its bracts broad, very unequal, the outer 2-3 inches 

 long, long-acuminate, inner one about an inch long, acute or short-acumin- 

 ate, scarious-margined : flowers bright reddish-purple to white : segments 

 of the perianth 6-10 lines long, cuneate-oblong, abruptly acute and often 

 shortly acuminate: filaments broad at base, 3-6 lines long, much shorter 

 than the style ; anthers 2 lines long: capsule obovoid, 2-3 lines high. 

 Common in moist places in the interior, California to Brit. Columbia. 



Order XCV SMILACEiE Vent. Tabl. ii, 146. (1799) 



Shrubby or herbaceous climbing plants with alternate net- 

 veined petioled leaves that develop stipular persistent tendrils 

 by which the stern is secured to shrubs, and small dioecious 

 flowers in axillary umbels. Perianth-segments 6, similar. 

 Stamens mostly 6, distinct; filaments ligulate; anthers attached 

 by the base, 2-celled, introrse. Ovary 3-celled, the cells oppo- 

 site the inner segments of the perianth. Ovules 1 or 2 in each 

 cell, orthotropous, suspended. Style very short or none : stig- 

 mas 1-3. Fruit a globose berry containing 1-6 seeds. Embryo 

 small, in copious horny albumen. 



1 SMILAX L. Sp. 1028. 



Climbing plants with broad leaves and small greenish flowers in 

 axillary umbels. Rootsock usually very large and tuberous. 

 Flowers regular, perianth-segments distinct, deciduous, with the 

 anthers inserted on their bases. Staminate flowers without an 

 ovary: the pistillate usually with 1-6 abortive stamens. Embryo 

 lying under a tubercle at the upper end of the seed. 



S. Californica Gray in Herb. Watson Bot. Cal. ii, 186. Glabrous : 

 stems woody, 4-20 feet long, terete or somewhat angled, naked or covered 

 with weak spreading prickles : leaves broadly ovate, abruptly acute, some- 

 what cordate at base, 1^-4 inches long, thin and deciduous, roughish on 

 the margins, on petioles about an inch long peduncles slender, flat, 2-3 

 times longer than the petioles : flowers 20 or less: segments of the perianth 

 4-9, green narrowly oblong, 5 lines long: fruit black, 2 lines in diameter. 

 In thickets along streams, southern Oregon and northern California. 



Order XCVI LILIACEiE Adans. Fam. PL 42. (1763) 



Scapose or leafy-stemmed plants from bulbs or rarely from 

 rootstocks with various leaves and regular mostly perfect usu- 

 ally showy flowers mostly in umbels or racemes. Perianth 

 parted into 6 distinct or nearly distinct segments, or these 

 more or less united into a tube, inferior or partly superior. 

 Stamens 6, hypogynous or borne on the perianth at the base of 

 its segments : anthers 2-celled, mostly introrse. Ovary 3-celled, 

 with few or numerous anatropous or amphitropous ovules in 

 each cell. Style united: stigma 3-lobed or capitate. Fruit a 

 loculicidal or septicidal capsule. Seeds various, winged or 

 wingless. Embryo in copious albumen. 



I Flowers with scarious bracts, a persistent perianth with 



