10 
(as to congesta) ** bifid, shortly cuspidate between lobes tend- 
ing to the shape of a knife, having the appearance of a triple 
crown.” The upshot of this is merely that the barren sta- 
mens in one are entire, and in the other split into two acute 
lobes at the end, with sometimes an irregular side-tooth, a 
very good specific feature. Who ever thought of separating 
Iris into genera on account of the indentures of the margin of 
its crests? I shall perhaps surprise the reader by stating, 
that, as far as I know, the asserted hypogynous scales in 
Brodiea seem to be a fallacy, and that no such thing has 
existed in any of the flowers I have examined of either species. 
The perianth is thick, and Salisbury was deceived by remain- 
ing fragments thereof when he thought he had pulled it off, 
and others have, I suppose, taken them for granted. There- 
fore “squamæ hypogyne nulle" in other genera is superfluity. 
The supposed scales in Pyrolirion, which deceived Ruiz, were 
an articulate base to the alternate filaments. The difference 
stated by Kunth that B. congesta has the sepals, and grandi- 
flora the petals, widest, is incorrect: the petals are widest in 
both. Prof. Endlicher places Triteleia and Hesperoscordum, 
with genera intervening between them, in Agapanthez, and 
Allium in Asphodelez, dividing the original Asphodelez into 
suborders, which Prof. Kunth wisely, (because they are not 
correct) but, I believe, silently, rejects. On examination of 
the characters of those new suborders, (as well as of Aloinex 
which intervenes) it will be found that there is no true dis- 
tinction, the one suborder by alternatives admitted in its 
character comprising the points to which the other is limited, 
while other distinctions are incorrectly assumed. The only 
positive difference, asserted is in the seeds, and that in some 
respects inaccurately, in others insignificantly. It is not a 
fact that his Agapanthex have a black or pale membrana- 
ceous, and his Asphodelex a black crustaceous shell, nor are 
those distinctions true even as to genera. Some of the Cape 
Ornithogala have a less crustaceous shell, more compressed 
and less globose, than most other Ornithogala, or the genera 
Triteleia, Brodiza, and above all Calliprora, in his Agapan- 
thee; and Scilla amena in his Asphodelez has the shell 
rufous brown amongst its black-seeded congeners. 
W. Herbert. 
