186 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



Amaryllidaceae. 



Pax in his treatment of the Amaryllidaceae in Die 

 Natiirliohen Pflanzenfamilien, characterizes two tribes, 

 Galanthinae and Conanthereae, as dehiscing by apical pores. 

 The genera of the Galanthinae have been mentioned under 

 the Ericaceous type. 



Conanthera (3 or 4 species in Chile) has the anthers 

 connivent in a cone and dehiscing by pores at the tip or 

 by introrse slits extending almost to the base. They are 

 provided at the tip with a simple or bifid acumen and are 

 either exserted or included in the campanulate perianth 

 tube. Cyanella (4 or 5 species in the Cape region) is a 

 beautiful example of this type with some species showing 

 zygomorphic flowers, in some respects very similar to those 

 of Cassia. Zephyr a (1 species in Chile) and Tecophilaea 

 2 species in Chile) are aberrant, zygomorphic forms 

 which cannot be described in detail here. 



A point of interest in the relation of the apically dehis- 

 cent genera of the Liliaceae and Amaryllidaceae to the 

 other members of the families is that in the arrangement of 

 Engler and Prantl the apically dehiscent genera of the for- 

 mer are found associated with sometimes several of the 

 longitudinally dehiscent forms in as many of the ultimate 

 groups as there are genera, belonging to three of the sub- 



families of that system, while in the Amaryllidaceae, the 



four genera assigned to the Solanum-Cassia type all belong 

 to the same ultimate group. 



A comparison of these groups in the two families is 

 interesting. In the Amaryllidaceae the four apically 

 dehiscent genera belong to a single group and are struc- 

 turally very similar, differing largely in the characteristics 

 of the variously zygomorphic androecium. In the Lili- 

 aceae, however, the differences to be noted within the 

 same group are much greater, as may be most strikingly 

 illustrated by the comparison of Walleria with Gloriosa 



