396 CXXXIII. LILIACEA. 
8. WHITEHEADIA, Harv. 
Perianth persistent, with a short, wide tube, partly adnate 
to the base of the ovary; limb 6-parted, stellately patent ; 
segments oblong, flat, delicately membranous, 3-5-nerved and 
veiny. Stamens in the throat, their membrano-dilated fila- 
ments united in a coronal ring, quite free from the segments 
of perianth. Ovary sharply 3-angled, 3-celled; ovules many ; 
style continuous with the ovary, subulate, recurved ; stigma 
simple. Capsule obovate, crowned with the hooked style, 
membranous and yeiny, broadly 3-winged. Seeds numerous, 
black. 
W. latifolia, Harv., is a remarkable bulbous-rooted plant, discovered at 
Modderfontein, Namaqualand, by the Rev. Henry Whitehead, to whom I 
am indebted for many curious plants, and in honour of whom I name this 
genus. The leaves (probably 2?) are nearly orbicular, 8-10 inches long 
and wide, many-nerved, and probably lie flat on the ground, like those of a 
Massonia. The scape is 5-6 inches high, and clothed throughout with 
closely placed, imbricating, broadly-ovate and cucullate, taper-pointed 
bracts, within each of which is concealed a subsessile flower ; the upper- 
most bracts being empty, as in Hucomis; the points of the bracts are re- 
flexed. Though nearly related to Eucomis in floral structure, the habit is 
very peculiar, and the differences above indicated in the stamens and cap- 
sule, and the hooked style seem sufficiently distinctive. 
9. EUCOMIS, L’ Her. 
Perianth 6-parted, regular, persistent ; tube short, furnished 
within towards the middle with a papillose or tumid ring ; 
segments oblong, inflexed-cucullate at the apex, 1-nerved, 
equal, spreading. Stamens in the throat, subequal, adnate at 
base to the lobes of the perianth; filaments membrano-dilated 
and slightly connate at base. Ovary sessile, ovate or obovate ; 
ovules many or few; style filiform, erect, equalling the sta- 
mens ; stigma depressed-capitate, minute. Capsule coriaceous, 
3-angled. Seeds few, black.—Kunth, l.c. p. 301. 
Bulbous, scapigerous plants. Leaves broadly lanceolate or oblong, nerve- 
striate, thickish. Scape rather tall ; raceme densely many-flowered, bearing 
a crown of leaves at its summit. Flowers greenish or whitish.—6 species. 
10? SCILLA, Linn. 
Perianth 6-parted, regular, urceolate or campanulate, deci- 
duous, sometimes persistent; sepals subconnate at base, 1- 
nerved, equal, reflexed at tip. Stamens 6, shorter than the 
perianth ; filaments flattened, wider or narrower, more or less 
adnate to the sepals at base. Ovary sessile, rarely very shortly 
stipitate, 3-angled; ovules 2-10 in each cell; style erect. 
Capsule membranous, ovate or roundish. Seed black or 
blackish. Kunth, 1. c. p. 814; Lindl. Bot. Reg. t. 1355. 
