186 MISC. PUBLICATION 42 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



made from the leaves of the yuccas and the strong fibers obtained 

 from them were much used by the Indians, who also ate the fruits 

 of the fleshy -fruited species. The bulbs of wild onions (Allium and 

 related genera) were eaten by the natives of Arizona. The Liliaceae 

 are mostly innocuous, but a few species — deathcamas (Zygadenus) 

 and false-hellebore (Veratrum) — are poisonous. The most important 

 cultivated food plants of this family are onion and asparagus, the 

 latter occasionally growing wild as an escape from gardens. 



Key to the genera 



1. Plants with a large woody caudex, this mainly subterranean or largely above 



ground and trunklike; leaves numerous, in large rosettes at apex of tha 



caudex or of its branches, narrow, elongate, mostly rigid and spine-tipped 



(2). 



2. Flowers seldom less than 2 cm. long, all perfect; capsules large, not lobed 



or winged; seeds very numerous in each cell of the capsule, flattened; 



leaf margins usually filamentous 14. Yucca. 



2. Flowers much less than 1 cm. long, all or many of them unisexual; capsules 



small, 3-lobed or winged; seed solitary in each cell of the capsule, turgid; 



inflorescences with small scarious bracts (3) . 



3. Leaves not very rigid, the margins not spiny (sometimes serrulate) ; 



plants incompletely dioecious, some of the flowers perfect; capsule 



3-celled, 3-lobed; seeds round 15. Nolina. 



3. Leaves very rigid, the margins armed with sharp curved spines; plant 

 completely dioecious; capsule 1 -celled, winged; seeds trigonous; 



staminate flowers in dense catkinlike spikes 16. Dasylirion. 



1. Plants herbaceous, without a large woody caudex; leaves not in large rosettes, 



never rigid or spine-tipped (4) . 



4. Styles 3, separate; flowers in racemes or panicles; perianth greenish or 



whitish (5). 



5. Leaves linear or narrowly lanceolate; perianth segments each with a gland 



near the base 1. Zygadenus. 



5. Leaves broadly elliptic or ovate; perianth segments not gland-bearing. 



2. Veratrum. 

 4. Style 1 or the styles united, at least toward base (6). 



6. Perianth segments very unlike, the 3 outer ones much narrower, sepallike, 



the 3 inner ones broad, petallike, bearing a large, variously fringed or 

 bordered gland near the base; fruit a septicidal capsule (dehiscing 



through the partitions) 13. Calochortus. 



6. Perianth segments all alike or nearly so, none bearing glands; fruit a 

 loculicidal capsule (dehiscing between the partitions), or berry- 

 like (7). 

 7. Fruits berrylike, indehiscent; flowering stems from (usually horizontal) 

 rootstocks (8). 

 8. Stems much branched with very slender branches; leaves small, 



scalelike 17. Asparagus. 



8. Stems simple or sparinglv branched; leaves large, with broad blades 

 (9). 

 9. Flowers not nodding, in terminal racemes or panicles; perianth 

 rotate, the segments not more than 7 mm. long. 



18. Smilacina. 

 9. Flowers nodding, axillary or subaxillary or, if terminal, in very 

 few-flowered umbellike clusters; perianth campanulate, the 

 segments 8 mm. long or longer, separate or nearly so; stems 

 usually dichotomously branched (10). 

 10. Flowers terminal; peduncle or pedicel not jointed or bent; 

 perianth segments not recurved; fruit 3-lobed, depressed- 

 globose, papillate 19. Disporum. 



10. Flowers not terminal; peduncles filiform, jointed and abruptly 

 twisted or bent; perianth segments becoming recurved; 



fruit entire, ellipsoid, smooth 20. Streptopus. 



7. Fruits capsular, dehiscent; flowering stems from bulbs, corms, short 

 vertical rootstocks, or tuberlike roots (11). 





