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Essential Character. — Plowers monoclinous, surrounded by bracterc, the outer of which 

 are petaloid and herbaceous, the inner depauperated and coloured. Perianthium minute, 

 cither a sing-le labelloid lobe, or an urceolate 6-toothed body. Stamens 6, either all fertile, or 

 3 sterile and nearly obliterated. Ovarium superior, 3-celled ; style 1 ; stigma simple. Cap' 

 sule 3-celled, 3-valved, with a loculicidal dehiscence, many-seeded. Seeds attached to the 

 axis, by means of a broad hollow neck ; testa black and brittle ; embryo curved in the midst 

 of fleshy albumen. — Small herbaceous plants, with tunicated bulbs, heaves grass-like. 

 Flowers umbellate, somewhat spathaceous, inconspicuous. 



Affinities. The distinctions of many of the natural orders among Hexa* 

 petaloideous Dicotyledons are so slight, as far as technical characters are capa- 

 ble of being employed, that the separation of this tribe from Asphodelea seems 

 justifiable, even now that the structure of the seeds is known, and that they are 

 found to be essentially those of Asphodel eae, except in having a crustaceous 

 neck that connects them with the placenta. The tribe was originally proposed 

 in the Botanical Register, from which, as the work is in few hands, I make the 

 Following rather long extract : 



" The whole structure of this most remarkable plant is so peculiar, that we 

 scarcely know whether the definition and description of the parts of fructifi- 

 cation above given will not be considered more paradoxical than just ; and 

 yet, if the analogies the various organs bear to those of other plants be care- 

 fully considered, their structure will scarcely admit of any other interpreta- 

 tion. With respect to the five petaloid leaves, which are here described as 

 bractea;, and which bear a considerable degree of resemblance to a perian- 

 thium, it may be observed, that this appearance is more apparent than real j 

 they neither correspond in insertion nor in number with the segments of a mo- 

 nocotyledonous perianthium, nor do they bear the same relation to the parts 

 contained as a perianthium should bear. The three outer are not inserted on 

 the same line, but are distinctly imbricated at the base ; and the two inner do 

 not complete the second series, as would be required in a regular monocotyle- 

 donous perianthium. 



" But if we were to admit, for a moment, the possibility of these bracteaa 

 being segments of a perianthium, what explanation could be given of the seti- 

 form processes proceeding from their base, or of the central fleshy slipper-like 

 body from within which the stamens proceed 1 The former bear no determi- 

 nate relation to the other parts of the flower in their insertion ; they are sub- 

 ject to much diversity of form and number, being sometimes eight, consisting 

 of two unequal subulate bodies proceeding from the edges of each lateral seg- 

 ment, the outermost of the two being wider than the innermost, and being, 

 moreover, not unfrequently a manifest process of the margin of the segment 

 itself; sometimes having their number reduced to four by the suppression of 

 the exterior processes of each lateral segment ; and occasionally having the 

 outer processes suppressed on one segment, and not suppressed on the other. 

 In the many flowers which have been under examination, the processes, more- 

 over, were always constituted of cellular tissue alone, without either tracheae 

 or tubular vessels. These circumstances being considered, it will scarcely be 

 proposed, we presume, to identify them with abortive stamina. If they are, 

 notwithstanding what has been advanced, determined to be the perianthium 

 itself, what becomes of the outer segments, which had previously been referred 

 to perianthium 1 for it would be difficult to trace any analogy between the 

 structure of Gilliesia and of those genera in which a third series is added to 

 the usual senary division of Monocotyledones. But none of the peculiarities 

 adverted to are opposed to those bodies being referred to depauperated or 

 reduced bracteee. 



" With respect to the central body from which the stamens proceed, this 

 body, which might be conveniently disposed of by referring it to what Linnaean 

 botanists call a nectarium, consists, as we have seen, of a fleshy slipper-like 



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