1. Z. Atamásco, Herb. (Atamasco Lily.) Leaves bright green and shining, very narrow, channelled, the margins acute; scape 6–12´ high; peduncle short; spathe 2-cleft at the apex; perianth white and pink, 3´ long; stamens and style declined.—Penn. to Va. and Fla. June. (Addendum) (Amaryllis Atamasco, L.).
2. HYMENOCÁLLIS, Salisb.
Perianth with a long and slender tube, and an equal 6-parted limb; lobes long and narrow, recurved; the throat bearing a tubular or cup-shaped corolla-like delicate crown, which connects the bases of the 6 exserted stamens. Anthers linear, versatile. Capsule thin, 2–3-lobed; seeds usually 2 in each cell, basal, fleshy, often like bulblets.—Scapes and leaves from a coated bulb. Flowers white, fragrant, large and showy, sessile in an umbel-like head or cluster, subtended by 2 or more scarious bracts. (Name composed of ὑμήν, a membrane, and κάλλος, beauty.)
1. H. occidentàlis, Kunth. Leaves strap-shaped, glaucous, 1–1½° long, 9–18´´ broad; scape 3–6-flowered; bracts narrow, 2´ long; perianth-tube about 2½–4´ long, the linear segments scarcely shorter; the crown 12–15´´ long, tubular below, broadly funnel-form above, the margin deltoid and entire, or 2-toothed and erose, between the white filaments, which are twice longer; anthers yellow; style green.—Marshy banks of streams, S. Ill. to N. Ga. and Ala.—Apparently distinct from H. lacera, Salisb. (Pancratium rotatum, Ker.), of the southern coast.
3. AGÀVE, L. American Aloe.
Perianth tubular-funnel-form, persistent, 6-parted; the divisions nearly equal, narrow. Stamens 6; anthers linear, versatile. Capsule coriaceous, many-seeded. Seeds flattened.—Leaves thick and fleshy, often with cartilaginous or spiny teeth, clustered at the base of the many-flowered scape, from a thick fibrous-rooted crown. (Name from ἀγαυή, noble,—not inappropriate as applied to A. Americana, the Century-plant.)
1. A. Virgínica, L. (False Aloe.) Herbaceous; leaves entire or denticulate; scape 3–6° high; flowers scattered in a loose wand-like spike, greenish-yellow, fragrant, the perianth 9–12´´ long, its narrow tube twice longer than the erect lobes.—Dry or rocky banks, Md. and Va. to Fla., west to S. Ind., Mo., and Tex.
4. HYPÓXIS, L. Star-grass.
Perianth persistent, 6-parted, spreading; the 3 outer divisions a little herbaceous outside. Stamens 6; anthers sagittate, erect. Capsule crowned with the withered or closed perianth, not opening by valves. Seeds globular, with a crustaceous coat, ascending, imperfectly anatropous, the rhaphe not adherent quite down to the micropyle, the persistent seed-stalk thus forming a sort of lateral beak. Radicle inferior!—Stemless small herbs, with grassy and hairy linear leaves and slender few-flowered scapes, from a solid bulb. (An old name for a plant having sourish leaves, from ὕποξυς, sub-acid.)
1. H. erécta, L. Leaves linear, grass-like, longer than the umbellately 1–4-flowered scape; divisions of the perianth hairy and greenish outside, yellow within.—Meadows and open woods, N. Eng. to Fla., west to Minn., E. Kan., and Tex.