406 CXXXV. SMILACEZ. 
poses. Scape bracteate, simple, bearing a thyrsus of many flowers ; flowers 
in fascicles, short-pedicelled, whitish or yellowish-green.—1 or 2 Cape spe- 
cies, Eastern. 
2. ASPARAGUS, Linn. 
Flowers bisexual or polygamo-diccious.: Perianth deeply 
6-parted, persistent; sepals equal, l-nerved, erecto-patent. 
Stamens at the base of the sepals, and shorter. Ovules 2-3-9 
in each cell; style filiform, sometimes short, deciduous ; stig- 
ma 3-fid, segments recurved. Berry globose, 1- or few-seeded. 
—Asparagus and Asparagopsis, Kunth, l.c. pp. 57, 76. 
Undershrubs or branching herbs, often spinous. Leaves scale-like, sub- 
tending phyllocladia (or leaf-like ramuli or barren pedicels) of various 
form. Peduncles 1-flowered, mostly several together; flowers small, 
greenish or whitish—Very many species, of which A. Capensis (“ Wagt 
een beetjie”’) is known to all. 
3. MYRSIPHYLLUM, Willd. 
Flowers bisexual. Perianth deeply 6-parted, persistent ; 
segments equal, 1-nerved, erecto-patent. Stamens at the base 
of the segments, and shorter. Ovules 6 in each cell; style ter- 
minal; stigma 38-lobed or 3-fid, sometimes undivided. Berry 
globose, 3-celled. Seeds in pairs.—Kunth, l.c. p. 105. 
Erect or voluble herbs. Leaves scale-like, subtending 1-3 fertile pedun- 
cles and 1 sterile (phyllocladium), leaf-like, more or less unequal-sided. 
Scarcely distinguishable from Asparagus, except that the “ phyllocladia ” 
are more leaf-like and expanded, and solitary (not fascicled).—8 species 
are described. 
4. DICTYOPSIS, Harv. 
Flowers bisexual. Perianth tubular-campanulate, with a 
short, spreading, 6-lobed limb, deciduous ; lobes ovate, 3- 
nerved. Stamens inserted at the base of the perianth, but 
partially adnate to the tube, included. Ovary narrowed at 
base (substipitate), 3-celled; ovules in pairs? ; style con- 
tinuous, columnar ; stigmas 3, capitate. Berry globose, suc- 
culent, 4—6-seeded; seeds very convex dorsally, flat in front.— 
Hook. f: Bot. Mag. t. 5638. 
D. Thunbergii, Harv. (Ruseus reticulatus, Thunb.), a plant common in 
the woods of the. Eastern districts, Caffraria, and Natal, is the type of this 
genus. It has a zigzag, rigid, climbing stem, leafy throughout. The 
leaves (not phyllocladia) are subsessile, broadly-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 
rigid, shortly acuminate, with an evident midrib, and many (5-9 on each 
side) parallel secondary ribs, all slightly raised, and united, in a net-like 
manner, by horizontal, simple, raised veinlets. Peduncles simple and 1- 
flowered or subracemose and 3-5-flowered, rising either from the axils of the 
larger leaves or (toward the ends of the branches) from scale-like bracts. 
Berry $ inch ciameter. 
