2. LOPHÌOLA, Ker.
Perianth densely woolly, deeply 6-cleft; the divisions nearly equal, spreading, longer than the 6 stamens, which are inserted at their base. Anthers fixed by the base. Capsule ovate, free from the perianth except at the base, pointed with the awl-shaped style, which finally splits into 3 divisions, one terminating each valve. Seeds numerous, oblong, ribbed, anatropous.—A slender perennial herb, with creeping rootstocks and fibrous roots, linear and nearly smooth equitant leaves; the stem leafless and whitened with soft matted wool toward the summit, as also the crowded or panicled cyme. Perianth dingy yellow inside; the lobes naked only toward the tip, each clothed with a woolly tuft near the base (whence the name, from λοφεῖον, a small crest).
1. L. aùrea, Ker.—Boggy pine-barrens, N. J. to Fla. June–Aug.
3. ÁLETRIS, L. Colic-root. Star-grass.
Perianth cylindrical, not woolly, but wrinkled and roughened outside by thickly-set points which look like scurfy mealiness, the tube cohering below with the base only of the ovary, 6-cleft at the summit. Stamens 6, inserted at the base of the lobes; filaments and anthers short, included. Style awl-shaped, 3-cleft at the apex; stigmas minutely 2-lobed. Capsule ovate, enclosed in the roughened perianth; the dehiscence, seeds, etc., nearly as in Lophiola.—Perennial and smooth stemless herbs, very bitter, with fibrous roots, and a spreading cluster of thin and flat lanceolate leaves; the small flowers in a wand-like spiked raceme, terminating a naked slender scape (2–3° high). Bracts awl-shaped, minute. (Ἀλετρίς, a female slave who grinds corn; the name applied to these plants in allusion to the apparent mealiness dusted over the blossoms.)
1. A. farinòsa, L. Flowers oblong-tubular, white; lobes lanceolate-oblong.—Grassy or sandy woods, Mass. to Fla., Ill., and Minn. July, Aug.
2. A. aùrea, Walt. Flowers bell-shaped, yellow (fewer and shorter); lobes short-ovate.—Barrens, N. J. to Fla. July.
Order 113. IRIDÀCEÆ. (Iris Family.)
Herbs, with equitant 2-ranked leaves, and regular or irregular perfect flowers; the divisions of the 6-cleft petal-like perianth convolute in the bud in 2 sets, the tube coherent with the 3-celled ovary, and 3 distinct or monadelphous stamens, alternate with the inner divisions of the perianth, with extrorse anthers.—Flowers from a spathe of 2 or more leaves or bracts, usually showy. Style single, usually 3-cleft; stigmas 3, opposite the cells of the ovary, or 6 by the parting of the style-branches. Capsule 3-celled, loculicidal, many-seeded. Seeds anatropous; embryo straight in fleshy albumen. Rootstocks, tubers, or corms mostly acrid.
[*] Branches of the style (or stigmas) opposite the anthers.