144 Transactions of the Society. 



which, however, are so often grown in gardens that it is very 

 doubtful whether they are truly native. 



The seeds are sometimes flattened, or angled by mutual pressure. 



LiliacEjE. — Over 2500 species are recorded, generally annual or 

 perennial herbs, often bulbous, but sometimes shrubby, or even in 

 some few cases attaining the size of a tree. The bulbous species 

 are partial to dry, sandy, or gravelly soil, the alluvial banks of 

 rivers, meadows, and woods. 



In Britain we have nineteen genera and thirty-six species. 



The ovary is free, 3-celled, with several or rarely only one ovule 

 in each. The fruit of our British species is a capsule, except in 

 Paris, Ruscus, Asparagus, Polygonatum, Maianthemum, and Con- 

 vallaria, which have baccate fruits. These are red, except in Paris 

 and Polygonatum, which have bluish-black berries. The carpels 

 of Tofieldia are almost free, and might be called follicles. 



The seeds are generally globose, and very hard in Ruscus, 

 Asparagus, Convallaria, Polygonatum, Maianthemum, Simethis, 

 Scilla nutans, Muscari raccmosnm, Ornithogalum nutans, Gagea, 

 Paris, and Colchicum. 



Scilla verna, S. autumnalis, and Ornithogalum have smaller 

 capsules and angular seeds, as also have some species of Allium 

 (the Onions) and Lloydia. 



Fritillaria, Tulipa, and Lilium have a different type of seed. 

 In these species they are very numerous, and superposed in two 

 rows, densely packed, much compressed and flattened, horizontal, 

 and more or less winged. 



Some species multiply by means of bulbils or small lateral 

 bulbs. These send out roots which grow horizontally at a right 

 angle to the axis of the parent bulb. They attain a considerable 

 length, and when they cease growing they are said to contract and 

 thus to draw the young bulbil away from the parent bulb. Such 

 cases are said to occur in Allium,, Muscari, Ornithogalum and 

 Tulipa. 



Lilium bulbiferum ot the Swiss Alps, which is sometimes 

 considered, as for instance by Grenier and Godron,* to be a local 

 form of L. croceum, hardly ever produces fruits, but is propagated 

 by bulbils, which are formed in the axils of the leaves. Kerner 

 statesj that there is no difference noticeable in the structure of 

 the flowers in these two Orange Lilies, and it is difficult to explain 

 their difference in mode of propagation, save on the assumption 

 that in the regions where L. bulbiferum grows, those insects 

 are wanting which should convey its pollen from flower to flower. 

 As the Orange Lily possesses no arrangements for autogamy, no 

 fruits are formed in the absence of insect-visits. It appears that 

 this plant has lost the capacity for autogamy ; at any rate if a 



* Flore de France, iii. p. 182. t Nat. Hist, of Plants, ii. p. 461. 



