I 
DESCRIPTION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
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flowers to the 3-cellecl ovary. Capsules 3-celled, 3-winged,. 
8-1 0" long. FI. June. In thickets, along river banks, 
frequent. The rhizome is collected in fall. 
LILTACEiE. (Lily Family). 
Smilax herbacea, L. Carrion Flower. Herbaceous, stems 
not prickly, climbing 3-15° high; leaves ovate or rounded, 
mostly heart-shaped or truncate at base, abruptly acute to 
short acuminate, 7-9 nerved, smooth ; petioles 3-4, long, 
longer than the leavep. Flowers dioecious, on axillary pe- 
duncles, regular, the perianth segments distinct, deciduous. 
Filaments linear. Ovary of fertile flowers, 3-celled. Flow- 
ers carrion-scented. Berries bluish-black, with a bloom. 
Very common ; abundant around Nashville. The leaves 
are collected in flowering season. 
Smilax bona nox, L. Wild Sarsaparilla. Branches and the- 
angular, often square branchlets sparsely armed with short 
rigid prickles ; leaves varying from round-heart-shaped and 
slightly contracted above the dilated base to fiddle-shaped and 
halbert-shaped or 3-lobed, green and shining both sides, cus- 
pidate-pointed, the margins often somewhat bristly-ci licate 
or spinulate; leaves tardily deciduous or partly persistent* 
Peduncle longer than, but seldom twice the length of, the 
short pet iole, flattened ; berries black with a bloom. Root 
not tuberous. In damp ground, river banks. 
Smilax Pseudo-China, L. Bamboo-briar. Rootstock tuberous; 
stems and branches unarmed, or with very few weak prickles ; 
lanceolate-heart-shaped, or on the branchlets ovate-oblong, 
cuspidate-pointed, often rough-cilicate, becoming firm in 
texture ; peduncles flat, 2-3' long. On sandy argillaceous- 
uplands. Both are collected as sarsaparilla. The tuberous 
rooted species is preferable. Collect in fall. 
Convallaria majalis, L. Lily of the Valley. A low perennial 
herb, glabrous, steraless, with slender running rootstocks, 
sending up from a scaly-sheathing bud 2 oblong leaves, with 
their long sheathing petioles enrolled one within the other. 
