76 
MELANTHACEAE. 
Order 16. LILIALES. 
Styles present, distinct or united; stigmas terminal. 
Styles distinct; capsule septicidal. 24. Melanthaceae. 
Styles united, often very short or obsolete during anthesis. 
Capsules septicidal; petals and sepals very unlike. 30. Calochortaceae. 
Capsules loculicidal; petals and sepals nearly alike. 
Sepals and petals chaffy. 25. Juncaceae. 
Sepals and petals not chaffy. 
Herbs with bulbs, corms or rootstocks. 
Plants with bulbs or corms, or short, erect rootstocks. 
Flowers in umbels, at first included in and later subtended by a 
scarious involucre. 26. Alliaceae. 
Flowers solitary or racemose, or in Leucocrinum by shortening of 
the stem umbel-like, without involucre. 27. Liliaceae. 
Plants with elongated, horizontal rootstocks. 28. Convallariaceae. 
Shrubby plants with woody caudices or trees. 29. Dracaenaceae. 
Styles wanting. 
Flowers perfect; plants not climbing. 
Leaves and bracts alternate; plants with bulbs; fruit a capsule. 
30. Calochortaceae. 
Leaves or leaf-like bracts whorled; plants with rootstock; fruit a berry. 
31. Trilliaceae. 
Flowers dioecious; plants climbing or trailing. 32. Smilacaceae. 
Family 24. MELANTHACEAE R. Br. Bunch-flower Family. 
Plants with rootstock and large oval clasping leaves; petals and sepals gland¬ 
less. 1. Veratrum. 
Plants with bulbs and linear leaves; petals and sepals with more or less distinct 
glands. 
Ovary partly inferior; glands obcordate. 2. Anticlea. 
Ovary wholly superior; glands obovate or semiorbicular. 3. Toxicoscordion. 
1. VERATRUM L. White Hellebore. 
Petals oblong-lanceolate. 1. V. tenuipetalum. 
Petals oval. 2. V. speciosum. 
1. Veratrum tenuipetalum Heller. Along stream in Colorado.—Alt. about 
9000 ft.—“Colorado”; Rabbit-Ear Pass; Fish Creek Falls. 
2. Veratrum speciosum Rydb. ( V . californicum Wats., and Coulter; not 
Durand.) In Colorado also erroneously called Skunk Cabbage. In moun¬ 
tain meadows, along streams, from Mont, to Wash., Colo, and Calif.—Alt. 
6500-10,000 ft.—Breckenridge; Marshall Pass; Indian Creek Pass; Waha- 
toya Creek, near La Veta; Pagosa Peak; Columbine; Oak Mesa. 
2. ANTICLEA Kunth. 
Petals and sepals 7-8 mm. long, 7-13-nerved. 1. A. elegans. 
Petals and sepals 5-6 mm. long, 3-7-nerved. 2. A. coloradensis. 
1. Anticlea elegans (Pursh) Rydb. ( Zygadenus elegans Pursh; Z. dila- 
tatus Greene) In meadows from Sask. to Alaska, Colo, and Nev.—Alt. 
6500-12,500 ft.—La Veta; Indian Creek Pass; La Plata Mountains; Cham¬ 
bers’ Lake; North Cheyenne Canon; Larimer County; Marshall Pass; Al- 
