
Melanthaceae 95 
and its stalk. TOFIELDIA or NARTHECIUM (p. 95, C) 
OC. Plant with bulb or corm. 
Q. Flowers in an umbel. BREVooRTIA or HooKeEra (p. 97, BB) 
QQ. Flowers in an elongated raceme or panicle. 
R. Styles 3; capsule septicidal. 
STENANTHIUM or ZYGADENUS (p. 95, CC) 
RR. Style 1; capsule loculicidal. 
CHLOROGALUM or SCHOENOLIRION or CAMASSIA (p. 97, E) 
NN. Stem not scapose, leafy and not only so at the base. 
S. Leaves very many, 50 or more, very tough and rigid, serrulate; plant with 
rhizome. XEROPHYLLUM (p. 96) 
SS. Leaves few, 20 or fewer, not particularly tough nor rigid, entire; plant 
with bulb or corm. 
LLoypIA or LILIUM or FRITILLARIA or CALOCHORTUS (p. 98, EE) 
MELANTHACEAE Bunch-flower Family 
Herbs, erect (ours), perennial, with rootstocks or rarely with coated bulbs; stem 
leafy (ours) or scapose. Leaves wide or grass-like, parallel-veined but often reticulate 
between the large veins. Flowers solitary or in a raceme or a panicle, perfect or poly- 
gamous or diocious, regular. Perianth-segments 6, distinct or nearly so, usually persist- 
ent. Stamens 6. Ovary 3-celled, superior or partly inferior; styles 3, distinct or some- 
what united. Fruit a capsule, mostly septicidal, rarely loculicidal. Seeds commonly 
tailed or appendaged, several to many. 
A. Leaves narrow, linear; plants glabrous (except Tofieldia in part). 
B. Leaves few, 25 or fewer, not rigid, not rough-margined; inflorescence bracted. 
C. Stems with rhizomes; anthers 2-celled; leaves equitant. 
D.  Perianth-segments oblanceolate; pedicels bracted near the Mower: fila- 
ments naked; anthers round-cordate; capsule ovate, 3-beaked, ficial 
TOFIEDIA (p. 95) 
DD. Perianth-segments lanceolate; pedicels bracted near the middle; filaments 
woolly; anthers linear; capsule oblong, attenuate upward, loculicidal. 
NARTHECIUM (p. 96) 
CC. Stems from bulbs; anthers cordate or reniform, I-celled; leaves not equi- 
5 tant. 
E. Flowers nodding, yellowish-purple; perianth-segments acuminate, gland- 
less. STENANTHIUM (p. 96) 
EE. Flowers erect, white or yellowish; perianth-segments acute or blunter, with 
- 1—2 glands just above the narrowed base. ZYGADENUS (p. 96) 
BB. Leaves many, 50 or more, rigid, rough-margined; inflorescence bractless; an- 
thers 2-celled; stem from a rhizome. XEROPHYLLUM (p. 96) 
AA. Leaves wide, lanceolate to broadly elliptic; stem and inflorescence pubescent; 
inflorescence bracted; anthers |-celled; stem from a rhizome. VERATRUM (p. 97) 
TOFIELDIA FALSE ASPHODEL 
Slender, mostly tufted; rootstocks short or creeping. Stems simple, leafy only at 
base. Leaves 2-ranked, equitant, linear, grass-like. Flowers in a terminal bracted 
spike or raceme, perfect, usually involucrate by 3 bractlets on the pedicel. Perianth 
persistent, more or less spreading; segments 3-veined, white or greenish, concave, oblong 
or obovate, without claws. Stamens equaling the perianth. Ovary sessile, 3-lobed. 
