cxxviii. ii.?:MODonACEj:. 745 



Obdeb cxxviii. HiEMODORACEiE. 



Perennial herbs ; rootstock short, tuberous, with usually fascicled 

 root-fibres. Leaves usually radical, often distichous, narrow, with 

 equitant sheaths ; nerves parallel. Flowers hermaphrodite, regular or 

 nearly so, in terminal spikes, racemes or panicles. Perianth corolline, 

 2-sei'iate; lobes 6, imbricate or induplicato-valvate. Stamens 6, opposite 

 or more or less adnate to the perianth-lobes, or fewer ; anthers erect or 

 versatile, 2-celled, rarely opening by pores. Ovary inferior or sub- 

 inferior, perfectly or imperfectly 3-celled ; ovules 1 or more, attached 

 to the inner angle of the cells ; style filiform (rarely short or obsolete) ; 

 stigma simple or 3-notched. Fruit a superior or nearly superior locu- 

 licidal capsule, or an inferior indehiscent berry tipped by the perianth. 

 Seeds various ; embryo small, partially enclosed in fleshy albumen. — 

 DiSTBiB. Genera 26 ; species about 120, in Australia, S. Afx'ica, N. and 

 S. America, Central and Eastern Asia. 



1. OPHIOPOGON, Ker-Gawl. 



Scapigerous herbs. Stems short from a short rootstock, or elongate 

 and subscandent. Leaves linear or lanceolate, parallel-nerved. Flowers 

 in racemes ; scape leafy or naked ; bracts scarious, usually manj— 

 flowered. Perianth superior; segments spreading. Stamens 6, on the 

 bases of the perianth-segments ; filaments short, erect ; anthers basi- 

 fixed. Ovary inferior, 3-celled, the crown flat or depressed ; ovules 2 

 in each cell, collateral, erect, anatropous ; style columnar; stigma 3- 

 toothed. Fruit indehiscent. Seeds few ; testa fleshy or succulent. — 

 DiSTBiB. Species 8 or 10, East Asiatic. 



1. Ophiopogon intermedius, Don, Prodr. Fl. Nep. (1825) p. 48. 

 Vab. pauciflora, Hool-. f. Fl B. J. v. 6 (1892) p. 269. Rootstock 

 short. Leaves 6-20 by ^l— § in., linear, acute or acuminate, dark green 

 above, paler beneath. Flowers white, rather distant, in lax racemes 

 1-2 in. long, on very long slender scapes 4-10 in. long; bracts narrowly 

 lanceolate, variable in length, sometimes as much as | in. long ; pedicels 

 Jfy-l^in. long. Perianth campanulate, 5 in. long; segments ^ by -^-^ in., 

 elHptic-oblong, obtuse. Anthers narrowly oblong. Seeds subglobose, 

 ^ in. in diam., crowded round and almost concealing the small withering 

 pericarp ; testa soft, blue. Ophiopogon intermeduis, Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 4, 

 p. 267 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1899) p. 521. 0. indicus, 

 Wight, Icon. V. 6 (1853) p. 26, t. 2050.— Flowers : Sept. 



Not common. Dalzell without locality in Herb. Kew. ! ; SfocJcs without locality 

 in Herb. Kew. ! Deccan : Mahableshwar, Woodrow. — Distrib. India (Kbasia Hills, 

 W. Peninsula); Ceylon, 



Sansevieria zeylanica, Willd. Sp. PI. v. 2 (1799) p. 159. Stem very 

 short. Leaves about 8 or 9 in a tuft, 2|-3 ft. long by 1 in. broad 

 towards the middle, suberect, rigid, pale green with transverse bands of 

 dark green, :| in. thick, with a terete rigid spine-like tip 1-2 in. long. 

 Flowers greenish--white tinged with violet, in fascicles of 3-6 on long 

 racemes 1-2 ft. long. 



