Family, Lily. Stamens and pistils on different plants. Sepals, 6, persistent after withering. Six stamens with white anthers. The fertile flowers contain only the rudiments of stamens. Styles, 3, long, club-shaped, stigmatic along one side. Capsule oblong, about 1/2 inch long, 3-lobed and 3-valved. Leaves, upper ones lance-shaped or linear, flat, sessile, or short-petioled; the lower broad at apex, obtuse, tapering into narrow petioles. May to July.

A long stem, 4 feet high or less, rises from a tuberous root-stock, bearing a bractless raceme several inches long, of small, feathery, white, staminate flowers. The raceme of pistillate flowers on a shorter stem is stiff and erect.

Massachusetts to Florida and westward.