370 CXXIII. BURMANNIACE®. 
, 
and terminal flowers, solitary or in spikes, racemes, cymes or 
umbels. Chiefly tropical. 
1. BURMANNIA, Linn. 
Perianth terete or 3-winged, 6-fid. Stamens 3, opposite 
the inner lobes of perianth. Ovary 3-celled. Capsule 3- 
celled, incompletely 3-valved. 
Leaves radical, numerous, grass-like. Scapes 1-2 ft., or bearing a 2-fid, 
many-flowered spike.—1 Cape species (B. Capensis) on record ; said to have 
3-flowered scapes, and a 3-winged perianth. Unknown to me. 
Orper CXXIV. DIOSCORIDEZ. 
Flowers unisexual, mostly dicecious. Perianth 6-lobed or 
divided. Stamens 6 or 3, inserted on the perianth, shorter 
than its lobes; anthers 2-celled. Ovary inferior, 3-celled, 
with 2 pendulous ovules in each cell ; styles short, united or 
separate or 0; stigmas 3, entire or 2-fid. Fruit a berry or a 
3-angled or winged capsule. Seeds albuminous, with a minute 
embryo.—Herbs, mostly with twining stems. Leaves simple 
or compound, with digitate or parallel nerves and netted veins. 
Flowers small, greenish, in axillary, simple or branched spikes 
or racemes. 
1. DIOSCOREA, Linn. 
Capsule 3-angled or winged, openirg loculicidally at the 
angles. Seeds winged.—Endl. Gen. n. 1261. 
A very large, chiefly tropical and subtropical genus, often having large, 
fleshy rhizomes or tubers; such species constitute the varions kinds of 
Yam, which are so important as esculents to mankind within the tropics. 
The South African species are numerous, especially in Caffraria and at 
Natal, and form two groups; the Testudinarie (or Tortoise-plants), which 
have over-ground, perennial, tessellated, hardshelled rhizomes ; these occur 
in the Eastern district and frontier; and the Yams, properly speaking, 
which have large or small, mostly underground, tuberous rhizomes ; these 
are chiefly from Caffraria and Natal, though some grow within the frontier. 
ed 
Orper CXXV. IRIDEA. 
Perianth tubular, 6-parted, in two rows, often irregular. 
Stamens 3, distinct or monadelphous, opposite the outer seg- 
ments of the perianth ; anthers 2-celled, opening outwards. 
Ovary inferior, 3-celled ; ovules numerous ; style 1; stigmas 
3, dilated, often petaloid, sometimes 2-fid. Capsule 3-celled, 
3-valved, loculicidal. Seeds numerous ; embryo cylindrical, in 
