\ 



\ 



MR. J. O. BAKKK*S Sl'STEMA IBIDACEAUUM. G5 



comparatively persistent, nearly always arranged in centripetal 

 spikes, which are often panicled. To the normal form of this type, 

 of which w^e have examples in Gladiolus^ Ixia^ Watsonia^ Sparaxis, 

 and Antholyza^ about one third of the genera of the order belong. 

 We have this type running into abnormal forms in Lapeyrousia^ 

 in which the flowers are arranged in corymbose panicles, but iu 



■ 



some species they run into spikes at the end of the branches — and 

 in Romulea and Spatalanthits^ in which the flowers are often soli- 

 tary or, if more than one, umbellate. Taking the three primary 

 subdivisions of the order founded on perianth-structure, we find 

 this type of inflorescence runs through all the GladiolecB^ includes 

 about half of the Ixiecd^ and is not represented at all in the Iridem 

 proper. It is correlated with flab e Hate- distichous leaves, the ab- 

 sence of a peduncle inside the bract, the presence of a distinct 

 tube to the perianth above the ovary, a perigynous insertion of 

 the stamens, and a comparatively firm texture and long duration 

 in the floner. In this type the shape and texture of the two 

 bracts of the spathe vary greatly from genus to genus, and 

 usually run through a genus with great uniformity. As illustra- 

 tions of peculiar forms, I may mention the short, oblong-truncate 

 type, membranous in texture, with two or three cusps at the tip, 

 which marks Ixia^ MorpMxia^ and Tritonia^ and the membranous 

 lacerated spathe- valve conspicuously variegated with brown and 

 white, which marks at a glance Sparaxisirom all the other Ixioid, 

 and Synnottia from all the other Gladioloid genera. 



2. Plow^ers one or many to each bulb or corm, sessile in the 

 centre of a multifarious rosette of generally narrow leaves, each 

 furnished with a tight-clasping, long, membranous spathe of its 



own, divided at the top into one or two valves, and these, if the 

 flower be more than one, not enclosed in a general bract of firm 

 texture, as in the next group: examples — Crocus^ Galaxia^ Sy- 

 ringodea. The flowers in this type are always regular and upright, 

 with a long slender tube, and the leaves never flabellato-di- 



btichous. 



3. Flowers essentially clustered, the bracts superposed, the 

 two outer ones generally green and firm in texture at the 

 flowering-time, the inner ones membranous. The number of 

 flowers in a cluster varies greatly. Rarely, as in some of the 

 Irises, it runs down to one, in which case there are no membra- 

 nous bracts inside the two outer green ones. Often the number 



