196 



GILLIESIACE^. 



[Endogens. 



y 



Order LX. GILLIESIACE^E.— Gilliesiads. 



Gilliesiese, Zi^d/. in Bo^ ife^/. 992. (1826) ; Hooker in Bot. Mag. 2716. a827).— Gilliesiacese, Ed.pr. 

 ccxlix. E7idl. Gen. p. 152 ; Meisner, Gen. p. 398. 



Diagnosis. — Lilial Endogens tvitJi a calyx-UTce involucre, the inner hracts of which are 

 coloured and petal-like. 



Small herbaceous plants, w-itli tunicated bulbs. Leaves grasslike. Flowers umbellate, 

 somewhat spathaceous, inconspicuous, hermaphrodite, surrounded by bracts the outer 

 of which are petaloid and herbaceous, the inner starved 

 and coloiu'ed. Perianth minute, either a single lip- 

 like lobe, or an urceolate 6-toothed body. Stamens 6, 

 either all fertile, or 3 sterile and nearly obliterated. Ovary 

 superior, 3-celled ; style 1 ; stigma simple. Capsule 3- 

 f // / / celled, 3-valved, with a loculicidal delaiscence, 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. 



To the following account of these plants, origmally given 

 in the Botanical Register, when speaking of Gilhesia, little 

 has to be added. 



" The whole structure of this plant is so peculiar, that I 

 scarcely know whether the description of the parts of fruc- 

 tification above given will not be considered more paradoxi- 

 cal than just ; and yet, if the analogies the various organs 

 bear to those of other plants be carefully considered, their 

 structure ^^•ill scarcely admit of any other interpretation. 

 With respect to the five petaloid leaves, which ai'e here 

 described as bracts, and which bear a considerable de- 

 gree of resemblance to a perianth, it may be observed, 

 that this appearance is more apparent than real ; they 

 neither correspond m msertion nor in number with the 

 segments of a monocotyledonous perianth, nor do they 

 bear the same relation to the parts contained as a pe- 

 rianth should bear. The tliree 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 monocotyledonous perianth. 

 But if we were to admit, for a moment, the possibiUty of 

 these bracts bemg segments of a perianth, what explana- 

 tion could be given of the setiform processes proceeding 

 from theii' base, or of the central fleshy shpperlike body 

 from within which the stamens proceed ? The former bear 

 no determinate relation to the other parts of the flower in 

 theii' msertion ; they are subject to much diversity of form 

 and number, being sometimes eight, consisting of two un- 

 equal subulate bodies proceeding from the edges of each 

 lateral segment, the outermost of the two being -wdder than 

 |(" ' *''i),S|Vll) // the innermost, and being, moreover, not imfrequently a 



manifest process of the margin of the segment itself ; some- 

 times ha\-ing theii' number reduced to four by the suppres- 

 sion of the exterior processes of each lateral segment ; and 

 occasionally havmg the outer processes suppressed on one 

 segment, and not suppressed on the other. In the many 

 flowers which have been under examination, the processes, 

 moreovei', were always constituted of cellular tissue alone, 

 without either spiral or tubular vessels. These circum- 

 Fig. CXXXIII. stances being considered, it will scarcely be proposed, we 



presume, to identify them with abortive stamma. If they 

 are, notwithstanding what has been advanced, determined to be the perianth itself, what 



Fig. CXXXIII.— 1. Miersia chilensis ; 2. its flower ; 3. the interior coloured petaloid bracts ; 4. a per- 

 pendicular section of the perianth (from a sketch hy Mr. Miers) ; 5. a seed of Gilliesia graminea ; 6. a 

 section of the game. 



