25G MR. J. G. BAKER Off THE 



and is reduced down to a single flower, sessile in the centre of 

 the basal rosette of leaves, in Herpolirion. Stypandra, Pasithea 

 and Eccremis furnish good instances of a panicle with corymbose 

 branches. In Tliysanotus and Tricoryne the basis of the inflo- 

 rescence is an umbel, which is sometimes reduced down to a 



cled 



single. 



arly 



at the base of the pedicels, and often furnish good specific charac- 

 ters. The pedicel is nearly always articulated at the middle or tip. 



Perianth. — The flowers are usually whitish, with a purplish- 

 brown keel, but they are occasionally blue, yellow, purple or rose- 

 red. The expanded perianth is funnel-shaped in the Asphodel?, 

 rotate in the typical Anthericese ; on the whole the structure of 

 the perianth in all the 27 genera is extremely uniform. Aspho- 

 delus and Asphodeline have a distinct basal urceolus, thus pre- 

 senting a transition towards the gamophyllous genera. The shape 

 of the perianth is never decidedly irregular, the nearest approach 

 to it being in Asphodeline, where the stamens are distinctly 

 declinate. Here as in the other tribes of Liliacece, the three inner 

 segments are often broader and blunter than the three outer. In 

 Thysanotus, Siona and Bottinaa the three inner segments are 

 densely fimbriated and much more delicate in texture than the 

 three outer, which, in the bud, are placed almost edge to edge. 

 In Selonia, which I have not seen, the three outer segments are 

 also said to differ greatly in texture from the three inner. The 

 segments are always six in number, with a decidedly imbricate 

 aestivation. The number and arrangement of the prominent dor- 

 sal nerves of the perianth-segments often furnish distinctive 

 characters for genera and subgenera. A regular spiral twisting 

 of the perianth after the flowers fade marks nearly all the sections 

 of Ccesia and the section Streptanthera of Anthericum^ 



Stamens. — On the whole the most important characters for 

 genera are furnished by the stamens. Except in Anemarrhena y 

 they are always inserted at or very near the base of the perianth ; 

 but both filament and anther vary greatly. Usually the filaments 

 nre subulate and the whole stamen shorter than the perianth- 

 lobes. In jEreinurus proper the stamens are remarkably condu- 

 plicate in bud, and twice as long as the funnel-shaped perianth- 

 when fully expanded. In Asphodelu* and Asphodeline the lanceo- 

 late filaments meet edge to edge, and permanently enclose the 

 ovary. In six of the genera of Antherieeae the filaments are 



