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THE PLANT WORLD. 



Cape bulbs include the Ixias and Sparaxis, with their delicate, harle- 

 quin-hued flowers; the Freesia, whose fragrant, drooping racemes are 

 now often seen in florists' windows ; and many species of Gladiolus, 

 though not strictly belonging to this class, grow wild at the Cape, and 

 in the skillful hands of the hybridizer, have given rise to our beauti- 

 ful garden Gladioli. 



The most prominent feature of the Iris family is found in the pe- 

 culiar arrangement of the leaves, which are technically described as 

 " equitant and two-ranked." The term equitant applies to the man- 

 ner in which one leaf sits astride another, in the fashion of a man on 

 horseback. It is well illustrated in the leaves of the common Iris or 

 Flag. While the majority of the family grow from coated bulbs or 

 corms (as in the Crocus), there are many genera in which there is 

 no bulb, but a thick, knotty rootstock. The perianth-segments are in 

 two series, often differing in color, but usually petaloid; the flowers 

 are subtended by large, spathaceous bracts, which we may perceive 

 upon examination to be analogous to the spathes of Aroids, discussed 

 in the last paper. 



The Amaryllidaceae ( Amaryllis family ) contains many more of 

 our spring-flowering bulbs, as well as several choice greenhouse forms. 

 In its geographic distribution the family is similar to the preceding, 

 but its genera are more numerous and its species fewer. Not over 

 half a dozen genera are found in the Eastern United States. Among 

 the examples seen in gardens are various species of Narcissus, the 

 Snowdrop [Galanthiis nivalis), the Snowflake {Lcncojmn vernuni), 

 and in greenhouses species of Hippeastrnm^ Sprekelia, Vallota, AtJia- 

 ryllis and Atamosco, all of which are sold under the composite name 

 of Amaryllis. The family is distinguishable from the Iridacese by its 

 nearly regular flowers, both series of perianth segments being similar; 

 by the stamens, which are three instead of six; and the leaves, which 

 are not equitant. While the root consists usually of a bulb, the Agave 

 tribe have a thick, woody caudex, and in tropical climates become 

 trees.- An example of the genus Agave is seen in the well-known 

 Century-plant (^. Americana). It is not, of course, true that the 

 plant attains an age of one hundred years before producing flowers, 

 but the development is slow, and after the plant has actually blos- 

 somed and fruited it dies outright. 



In the Orchids ( OrcJiidacecE ) we reach the highest type of mono- 

 cotyledonous plants. The union of primitive parts is here most 

 marked. The perianth, although its segments are distinct and peta- 

 loid, is coherent with the ovary; the usually single stamen is united 

 with the pistil into what is called the column.^ and finally the pollen 

 itself is coherent in pollen-masses or pollinia. The conspicuous part 



