NAT. ORDER, 
TrilliacecR. 
TRILLIUM SESSILE. VIRGINIA TURNIP. 
Class VI. Hexandria. Order III. Trigynia. 
Gen. Char. Calyx, three-leaved. Corolla, three-petalled, Stig- 
ma, sessile. Ber7-y, superior, three-celled. Cells, many- 
seeded. 
Spe. Char. Peduncle, inclined. Flower, nodding. Petals, ovate, 
acuminate, flat, spreading ; broader, and a little longer than 
the calyx. Leaves, broad-rhomboid, acuminate, sessile. 
This species of turnip has a tuberous, perennial root, which 
sends up in the spring a large, colored spathe, flattened and bent 
at the top, like a hood, and supported by an erect, purplish scape ; 
the spathe has within it a club-shaped spadix, variegated, round at 
the end ; at the base it is surrounded by the stamens, the female 
organs being below the male ; the spathe, spadix and germs are 
converted into a bunch of scarlet berries ; the leaves stand on long, 
sheathing footstalks, and are composed of leaflets, paler beneath 
than on their upper surface, and in time becoming glaucous. 
Of this genus there are several species, all of which are na- 
tives of North America. They have been described by Miller, 
in his Gardener s Dictionary, under the head of American Herh 
Paris ; but the Paris and Trillium, though somewhat similar 
in the style of their foliage, are very different in their parts of 
fructification. This species takes its trivial name of sessile, from 
the flowers having no footstalks, but sitting, as it were, immediately 
on the end of the stalk. 
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