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POPULAR FLORA. 
96. PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY. Order PONTEDERIACEiE. 
Is represented by three or four plants in this country, of which much the commonest 
is the 
Pickerel-weed. Pontederia. 
Perianth blue, of 6 divisions, unequally united below into a tube ; the 3 upper divisions most 
united and making a 3-lobed upper lip, the 3 lower spreading and separate some way down, making 
a lower lip: after expanding, for one day only, the upper part coils up and withers away, while the 
base of the tube thickens and encloses the small one-seeded fruit. Stamens 6; the 3 lower on slender 
projecting filaments; the 3 upper inserted lower down on,the tube, with very short filaments and 
generally imperfect anthers. Style • 1 : stigma 3-lobed. Stout herbs in shallow water, with long- 
petioled leaves and long peduncles or few-leaved stems (their leaves with sheathing footstalks, the 
uppermost one merely a sheathing spathe or bract), bearing a spike of flowers. 
1. Common Pickerel-weed. Stems 2° or 3° high; leaves thickish, lance-ovate or ovate-oblong, and 
generally more or less heart-shaped at the base. Common everywhere; fl. all summer. P. cordata. 
97. GREENBRIER FAMILY. Order SMILACEJE. 
Of this family, as here arranged, we have only a single genus, viz.: — 
Greenbrier. Smilax. 
Known at once by being climbing plants (or disposed to climb) and having a tendril on each side 
of the footstalk of the leaf; and by the leaves being veiny between the ribs, almost as in Exogens, 
alternate, sometimes evergreen, simple, and entire. Flowers dioecious, in axillary umbels. Perianth 
generally of 6 equal and spreading greenish or yellowish separate pieces. The sterile flowers have as 
many stamens, with oblong or linear one-celled anthers fixed by their base to the filament, and turned 
inwards. The fertile flowers have a round ovary, with 3 short spreading styles or stigmas. Fruit 
a berry, with 2 or few large seeds. Fl. summer. 
* Stems woody and often prickly, yellowish-green: ovary and berry 2-celled and 2-seeded, black when 
ripe, generally with a bluish bloom. 
1. Common G. or Catbrier. Leaves thickish, round-ovate or slightly heart-shaped, and with 6 to 
9 ribs, green both sides; branchlets often square; prickles short; peduncles of the umbel not longer 
than the petiole. Moist thickets. S. rotundifolia. 
2. Glaucous G. Leaves ovate, glaucous beneath ; peduncles longer than the petiole : otherwise 
nearly as No. 1. S. glauca. 
3. Bristly G. Leaves ovate and heart-shaped, large and thin, green both sides; stem below covered 
with long and weak blackish bristly prickles; peduncles much longer than the petioles. Thickets, 
N. and W. & Mspida. 
4. Laurel-leaved G. Not prickly; leaves lance-oblong or lance-linear, thick and evergreen, with 
3 to 5 ribs; peduncles of the umbel very short. Sandy soil, S. S. laurifolia. 
* * Stem herbaceous, climbing, not prickly: ovary and blue-black berry 3-celled, 6-seeded. 
5. Carrion-flower G. Leaves thin, pale, mostly heart-shaped, with 7 to 9 ribs, sometimes rather 
downy beneath, long-petioled; peduncles 3'to 8' long, longer than the leaves; flowers of the odor 
of carrion. Meadows and river-banks. & herbacea. 
