Flowers perfect. Perianth widely spreading; sepals petal-like (white), oval, distinct, without glands or claws, 5–7-nerved, at length withering, about the length of the awl-shaped filaments. Anthers 2-celled, short, extrorse. Styles thread-like, stigmatic down the inner side, persistent. Capsule globular, 3-lobed, obtuse (small), loculicidal; the valves bearing the partitions. Seeds 2 in each cell, collateral, 3-angled, not margined.—Herb with the stem simple, 1–4° high, from a thick tuberous rootstock, bearing a simple dense bracteate raceme of showy flowers, and thickly beset with needle-shaped leaves, the upper reduced to bristle-like bracts; those from the root very many in a dense tuft, reclined, a foot long or more, 1´´ wide below, rough on the margin, remarkably dry and rigid. (Name from ξηρός, arid, and φύλλον, leaf.)
1. X. setifòlium, Michx. Stem 1–4° high. (X. asphodeloides, Nutt.)—Pine-barrens, N. J. to Ga. June.
27. TOFIÈLDIA, Hudson. False Asphodel.
Flowers perfect, usually with a little 3-bracted involucre underneath. Perianth more or less spreading, persistent; the sepals (white or greenish) concave, oblong or obovate, without claws, 3-nerved. Filaments awl-shaped; anthers short, innate or somewhat introrse, 2-celled. Styles awl-shaped; stigmas terminal. Capsule 3-angular, 3-partible or septicidal; cells many-seeded. Seeds oblong, horizontal.—Slender perennials, mostly tufted, with short or creeping rhizomes, and simple stems leafy only at the base, bearing small flowers in a close raceme or spike. Leaves 2-ranked, equitant, linear, grass-like. (Named for Mr. Tofield, an English botanist of the last century.)
[*] Glabrous; pedicels solitary, in a short raceme or head; seeds not appendaged.
1. T. palústris, Hudson. Scape leafless or nearly so (2–6´ high), slender, bearing a globular or oblong head or short raceme of whitish flowers; leaves tufted, ½–1½´ long.—L. Superior, and northward. (Eu.)
[*][*] Stem and inflorescence pubescent; pedicels fascicled in threes; seeds caudate.
2. T. glutinòsa, Willd. Stem (6–16´ high) and pedicels very glutinous with dark glands; leaves broadly linear, short; perianth not becoming rigid; capsule thin; seeds with a contorted tail at each end.—Moist grounds, Maine to Minn., and northward; also south in the Alleghanies. June.
3. T. pùbens, Ait. Stem (1–3° high) and pedicels roughened with minute glands; leaves longer and narrower; perianth rigid about the firm capsule; seeds with a short white appendage at each end.—Pine-barrens, N. J. to Fla. and Ala. July.
28. NARTHÈCIUM, Moehring. Bog-Asphodel.