Narcissales.J 



HJSMODORACE/E. 



15i 



Okder XLIV. H^MODORACEtE.— Blood Roots. 



Haemodoracese, E. Brown, Prodr. 299. (1810) ; Agardh. Aphor. 170. (1823) ; Endl. Gen. Ixii. ; Meismr, 

 p. 396.— Vellozieae, D. Don in Edinb. Ph. Journal. (1830). 



Diagnosis. — Narcissal Endorjeiis loith hexapetaloideoics tubular Jlmvers, 3 stamens opposite 

 the petals or 6, anthers turned inwards, and radicle remote from the hilum which is 

 nal-ed. 



Herbaceous plants with fibrous perennial roots and permanent sword-shaped equitant 

 leaves, which are mostly in two ranks. Flowers . Peri- 

 anth usually more or less woolly, adherent ; the sepals and 



petals in many cases undis- 



tinguishable and united into 



a (cylindrical) tube. Stamens 



arisuig from the sepals and 



petals, either 3 and opposite 



the petals, or 6 ; anthers burst- 



mg uiwardly. Ovary with the 



cells 1- 2- or many-seeded, 



adherent, usually 3 - celled. 



Fig. XCVIII. Fig. XCIX. 



occasionally 1 -celled, with a placenta occupying only a point of the axis ; style simple ; 

 stigma undivided ; ovules amphitropal. Fruit covered l^y the withered perianth, 

 capsular, vah-ular, seldom indehiscent, somewhat nucamentaceous, with the placenta 

 easily separable from the dissepiments, if any. Seeds either definite or indefinite, fixed 

 by the base or peltate, winged or wrinkled and angulai'. [Embryo lying m cartilaginous 

 albumen, short, straight, ^^'ith the radicle usually remote from the hilum. Endh] 



The distmction between these and Amaryllids consists in theu* perianth not 

 having the regular cquitant position of sepals and petals which is found in the latter, 

 in their constantly cquitant leaves, and in then' flowers, which have frequently a woolly 

 sui'face, and a small hmb compared with the tube. From Irids they are divided 



Fig. XCVIII.— Blancoa cauescens. 1. a flower aud ovary of Conostylis aemula opened. 

 Fig. XCIX. — HcBmodorum spicatum. 1. A flower spread open ; 2. a cross section of the ovary; 

 3. an anther. 



