Sepals 6, linear-lanceolate, yellowish, persistent. Filaments 6, woolly; anthers linear, introrse. Capsule cylindrical-oblong, attenuate upward and bearing the slightly lobed sessile stigma, loculicidal, many-seeded. Seeds ascending, appendaged at each end with a long bristle-form tail.—Rootstock creeping, bearing linear equitant leaves, and a simple stem or scape, terminated by a simple dense bracteate raceme; pedicels bearing a linear bractlet. (Name an anagram of Anthericum, from ἀνθέρικος, supposed to have been the Asphodel.)
1. N. Americànum, Ker. Stem 1° high or more; leaves 1´´ wide, 7–9-nerved; raceme dense (1–2´ long); perianth-segments narrowly linear (2–2½´´ long), scarcely exceeding the stamens. (N. ossifragum, var. Americanum, Gray.)—Sandy bogs, pine-barrens of N. J. June, July.
29. MELÁNTHIUM, Linn.
Flowers monœciously polygamous. Perianth of 6 separate and free widely spreading somewhat heart-shaped or oblong and halberd-shaped or oblanceolate sepals, raised on slender claws, cream-colored or greenish, the base marked with 2 approximate or confluent glands, or glandless, turning greenish brown and persistent. Filaments shorter than the sepals, adhering to their claws often to near the summit, persistent. Anthers heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, confluently 1-celled, shield-shaped after opening, extrorse. Styles 3, awl-shaped, diverging, tipped with simple stigmas. Capsule ovoid-conical, 3-lobed, of 3 inflated membranaceous carpels united in the axis, separating when ripe, and splitting down the inner edge, several-seeded. Seeds flat, broadly winged.—Stems tall and leafy, from a thick rootstock, roughish-downy above, as well as the open and ample pyramidal panicle (composed chiefly of simple racemes), the terminal part mostly fertile. Leaves linear to oblanceolate or oval, not plaited. (Name composed of μέλας, black, and ἄνθος, flower, from the darker color which the persistent perianth assumes after blossoming.)
[*] Sepals with a conspicuous double gland at the summit of the claw.
1. M. Virgínicum, L. (Bunch-flower.) Stem 3–5° high, leafy, rather slender; leaves linear (4–10´´ wide); sepals flat, ovate to oblong or slightly hastate (2½–4´´ long); capsule 6´´ long; seeds 10 in each cell, 2–3´´ long.—Wet meadows, N. Eng. to N. C., west to Minn. and Tex.
2. M. latifòlium, Desrouss. Leaves more oblanceolate, often 2´ broad; sepals undulate (2–3´´ long), the very narrow claw nearly equalling the orbicular or ovate blade; capsule 6–8´´ long; styles more slender; seeds 4–8 in each cell, 3–4´´ long. (M. racemosum, Michx.)—W. Conn. to S. C.
[*][*] Sepals oblanceolate, without glands.
3. M. parviflòrum, Watson. Stem rather slender (2–5° high), sparingly leafy, naked above; leaves oval to oblanceolate (2–4´ wide), on long petioles; sepals 2–3´´ long, oblanceolate or spatulate, those of the sterile flowers on claws; stamens very short; capsule 6´´ long; seeds 4–6 in each cell, 4´´ long. (Veratrum parviflorum, Michx.)—In the Alleghanies, Va. to S. C.
30. VERÀTRUM, Tourn. False Hellebore.