Part 70

The flower is smaller than the Bellwort blossom, and the 3-parted pale yellow pistil protrudes conspicuously. The color is pale straw-yellow. The bell hangs on a slender stem that springs from beneath a leaf, on the underside of the branch.

Seldom more than one of these shy bells is found hiding under a branch. Possibly the tips curve outward more than those of the Bellwort’s flower.

*Two-leaved Solomon’s Seal.* Smilacina trifolia. *False little Solomon’s Seal.* *Two-leaved Smilax.*

Found in the woods during May.

The stalk, which grows from 3 to 6 inches in height, is round, and grooved, and usually bears 2 leaves. Its color is pale green, sometimes tinged with dull red.

The oval leaf is heart-shaped at the base where it partly clasps the stalk; the margin is entire, and the ribs are parallel, the texture is fine, and the surface is smooth and shining. In color, a light yellowish-green. Two or three leaves occur on the plant, alternately placed.

The flower is quite small, and white, with 4 petal-like parts, 4 stamens, and 1 pistil. The flowers are fragrant, and very numerous, clustered in a short, close terminal spike.

In common with others of the small Smilaxes the strong-fibred stem has a somewhat zigzag gesture. It looks an honest little plant, not at all deserving the opprobrious epithet, “false,” that has been given it.

*Solomon Zigzag.* Smilacina racemosa. *False Spikenard.*

Found in June, in moist woods and brookside copses.

The leafy stalk (from 1 to 2 feet high) is oblique and zigzag in gesture; it has a strong fibre, and a smooth surface, and is light green.

The leaf is oval--long in proportion to its width,--tapering to a slender tip, with an entire and much ruffled margin, and 3 noticeable ribs; the surface is finely downy; the color a strong, vigorous green. The leaves have almost no stem at all, and are placed alternately along the stalk.

The flower is small, with 6 petal-like parts and 6 stamens, all greenish white. Many flowers are gathered in a branching cluster upon the end of the leafy curving stalk.

The berries are pale red, speckled with dark. Gray’s Manual in speaking of this genus says its name is a diminution of Smilax, “to which, however, these plants bear little resemblance.” For a similar reason, perhaps, this plant is called “false” after the true Spikenard!

*Carrion Flower.* Smilax herbacea.

Found in moist meadows, along river banks, and in wayside thickets in June.

The round, smooth, tough, green stalk grows upward at first, but soon swings over to one side with a strong curve, leaning on surrounding plants for support, and further assisting its progress by means of many small twining tendrils.

The large leaf is nearly round, and somewhat heart-shaped at the base; it has an entire edge, and strongly marked parallel ribs; though thin, it is tough, and has a smooth, shining surface, and a bright green color. The leaves are alternate at short intervals, almost crowded. The tendrils spring from the angles of the leaves.

The small flower has its parts in threes, with twice three stamens; it is dull light green in color. Very many flowers, some 20 to 40, on short flower-stems, are gathered together in a round head; this head is on the end of a stem from 4 to 6 or more inches long. The flowers exhale a disagreeable odor which gives rise to its folk-name.

The fruit is a round blue-black berry; as it has not the objectionable odor of the flower, the vine becomes more attractive in its fruiting than in its blossoming season.

*False Hellebore.* Veratrum viride. *Indian Poke.* *Poor Annie.*

Found blossoming in June, in wet hollows, and along the borders of upland streams.

Its simple, erect stalk, growing from 2 to 4 feet high, is very leafy; it is round, and stout, an inch or more in diameter at the base; smooth, and green.

The very large leaf, from 10 to 12 inches long, is broadly oval, tapering at the tip, and deeply pleated on its many parallel ribs; the surface is finely downy, especially beneath; in color a bright grass green.

The flower is about three fourths of an inch across; the 6 spreading petal-like parts are leaf-like in texture, and of a yellowish-green color. The flowers, growing on very short foot-stems, with a narrow leaf (or bract) to each one, are thickly set in a pyramidal cluster, on the top of the leafy stalk.

The juice, particularly that of the root, is said to be a strong acrid poison. It is a plant of splendid vigor, and curves; in early spring, before the twiggery shows any green, it pushes up from the dark earth a large, lush, green bud, charged to the full with the impulse of growth; later its leafage becomes more or less mingled with that of its neighbors, and so does not receive the recognition it deserves for its striking qualities.

*Indian Cucumber-root.* Medeola Virginiana.

Found in moist rich woods, during June.