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turning inwards, or, if their stamens are reduced to three by those organs then 

 beino- opposite the petals, by their simple stigma, and by the texture of their 

 albumen. From Bromeliacese, to which they approach by Barbacenia and Vel- 

 lozia, they are known by being generally hexapetaloideous, not tripetaloideous. 

 According to Mr. Don, the genera Vellozia, Barbacenia, and'Xerophyta, pro- 

 bably constitute an intermediate group between the Hypoxidea? and Biomelia- 

 ceae (Jameson's Journal, Jan. 1830, p. 166). Mr. Don finds the seeds of Bar- 

 bacenia purpurea to be " compressed, cuneiform, and truncate at the apex, and 

 narrowed towards the base, which is furnished with a protuberance arising 

 from the elongation of the testa and umbilical cords. The testa is coriaceous, 

 and marked outwardly with numerous shallow furrows." In this order, as 

 well as in Gethyllis among Amaryllideae, there are polyandrous species ; a re- 

 markable anomaly in monocotyledons, which rarely exceed the number 6 in 

 their stamens. The Vellozias are singular in the tribe for their arborescent di- 

 chotomous trunks and tufted leaves. 



Geography. Found in North America sparingly, abundantly at the Cape 

 of Good Hope and in high land in Brazil, and 12 are described chiefly from the 

 more temperate parts of New Holland. 



Properties. M. Decandolle remarks, that the red colour found in the 

 roots of Dilatris tinctoria in North America, where it is used for dyeing, pre- 

 vails in Haemodorum and Wachendorfia, and deserves to be studied in the rest 

 of the order. 



Examples. Haemodorum, Conostylis, Dilatris, Lanaria. 



CCXXXVIII. AMARYLLIDEiE. The Narcissus Tribe. 



Narcissi, the second section, Juss. Gen. 54. (17S9). — Amaryllide.*:, R. Brown Prodr. 296. 

 (1810) ; Herbert Appendix to the Bot. Mag. (1821); Dec. and Duby,454. (1828); Lindl. Sy- 

 nops.261. (1829). Narcisse*:, Agardk Aph. 173. (1823.) 



Diagnosis. Hexapetaloideous bulbous hexandrous monocotyledons, with 

 an inferior ovarium, a 6-parted perianthiurn with equitant sepals, and flat 

 spongy seeds. 



Anomalies. Gethyllis is polyandrous. Clivia and Doryanthes have fasci- 

 cled roots. 



Essential Character. — Calyx and corolla confounded, superior, regular, coloured, the 

 former overlapping the latter. Stamens 6, arising from the sepals and petals, sometimes co- 

 hering by their dilated bases into a kind of cup; sometimes an additional series of barren 

 stamens is present, often forming a cup which surmounts the tube of the perianthiurn; an- 

 thers bursting inwardly. (Jrarium 3-celled, the cells many-seeded, or sometimes 1- or 

 2-seeded ; style 1 ; stigma 3-lobed. Fruit eiilior a 3-celled, 3-valved capsule, with loculicidal 

 dehiscence, or a 1-3-soeded berry. Seeds with either a thin and membranous, or thick and 

 fleshy testa ; albumen fleshy ; embryo nearly straight, with its radicle turned towards the hi- 

 lum. — Generally bulbous, sometimes Jibrous-rooted. Leaves ensiform, with parallel veins. 

 Flowers usually with spathaceous bractes. 



Affinities. The only orders with which this need be compared are As- 

 phodeleae and Liliaceas, from which it is known by its inferior ovarium ; Irideas, 

 which are distinguished by being triandrous, with the anthers turned outwards ; 

 and Haemodoraceaa, v/hich see. No one has ever thought of dismembering it, 

 since Mr. Brown founded it upon Jussieu's 2d section of Narcissi ; and it can 

 scarcely be said to comprehend an anomalous genus, unless Clivia and Dory- 

 anthes be so considered, on account of their fascicled roots, and Gethyllis, be- 



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