CORONARIE^ 343 



leaves and aerial stems in the form of scapes. The 

 leaves are cellular, narrow, grass-like. 



The inflorescence forms a head with an involucre, 

 bearing bracts. The flowers are unisexual, small, 

 with the parts in twos or threes, regular or irregular. 

 The plants are usually monoecious. 



The perianth is generally sepaloid, membranous, 

 or with a membranous border, two- to six-partite, or 

 in two whorls. The male flowers have two to three 

 free outer segments, and the inner are united into a 

 two- to three-lobed tube, with four or six stamens 

 (or three or two) inserted on the tube opposite the 

 segments, or with some alternate imperfect ones. 

 The anthers are dithecous or monothecous, and fixed 

 by the back, opening inwards. The anther-stalks 

 are turned inwards in bud. There may be a rudi- 

 mentary ovary. The female flower has an inferior 

 perianth, and a superior ovary of two to three carpels 

 united at the base. The outer segments are as in the 

 male flowers, and in the inner there are two to three 

 segments, or they are reduced to a pencil of hairs. 

 There are no staminodes. The style is short, 

 terminal, persistent. There are two to three slender 

 stigmas. The ovules are solitary, pendulous, and 

 orthotropous. The capsule is membranous, two- to 

 three-celled, and two- to three-valved, loculicidal. 

 The seed is pendulous, with a leathery testa. The 

 epidermis is transparent and splits up into hairs. 

 The endosperm is floury. The embryo is lens- 

 shaped, outside and at the base of the endosperm, 



