330 AMARYLLIS FAMILY. 



§ 2. Scape and mostly smooth leaves from a coated bulb. 

 * A cup-shaped, funnel-shaped, or saucer-shaped croivn on the throat of the perian^, 

 2. NARCISSUS. Perianth with a more or less cylindrical tube, 6 equal widely 

 spreading divisions, and stamens of unequal length included in the cup or 

 crown. Scape with one or more flowers, from a scarious 1-leaved spathe. 

 8. PANCRATIUM. Perianth with a slender tube, 6 long and narrow divisions, 

 and a cup to which the long filaments adhere below, and from the edge of 

 which they project. Anthers linear, fixed by the middle. Scape bearing a 

 few flowers in a cluster, surrounded by some leaf-like or scarious bracts. 



« * No cup nor crcmm to the flower, or only minute scales sometimes in ike throat. ", 

 ■*- Filaments borne on the tube of the flower : anthers fixed by the middle, versatile : 

 spathe of \ or ^ scales or bracts. 



4. CRINUM. Perianth with a slender long tube and 6 mostly long and narrow 

 spreading or recui^red divisions. Stamens long. Scape solid, bearing few or 

 many flowers, in an umbel-like head. Bulb often columnar and rising as if 

 into a sojt of stem. Leaves in several ranks. 



6. AMARYLLIS. Perianth various; the divisions oblong or lanceolate. Scape 

 bearing one or more flowers. Leaves mostly 2-ranked. 



H- -I- Filaments on the ovary at the base of the ^-parted perianth: anthers erect, not 

 versatile : spathe a bract opening on one side. 



6. GAL ANTHUS. Scape with usually a single small flower on a nodding pedicel. 



Perianth of 6 oblong separate concave pieces ; the three inner shorter, less 

 spreading, and notched at the end. Anthers and style pointed. 



7. LEUCOIUM. Scape bearing 1-7 flowers on nodding pedicels. Perianth of 



6 nearly separate oval divisions, all alike. Anthers blunt. Style thickish 

 upwards. 



§ 2. Stems leafy, or scape beset with bracts, from a tuberous rootstoch or crown, 



8. ALSTRCEMERIA. Stems slender and weak or disposed to climb, leafy to the 



top, the thin lanceolate or linear leaves commonly twisting or turning over. 

 Flowers in a terminal umbel. Perianth 6-parted nearly or quite to the ovary, 

 rather bell-shaped, often irregular as if somewhat 2-lipped. Stamens more or 

 less declined. Style slender : stigma 3-cleft. 



9. POLIANTHES. Stem erect and simple from a thick tuber, bearing long-linear 



channelled leaves, and a spike of white flowers. Perianth with a cylindrical 

 and somewhat funnel-shaped slightly curved tube, and 6 about equal spread- 

 ing lobes. Stamens included in the tube : anthers erect. The summit of the 

 ovary and pod free from the calyx-tube; in this and other respects it ap- 

 proaches the Lily Family. 

 10. AGAVE. Leaves thick and fleshy with a hard rind and a commonly spiny 

 margin, tufted on the crown, which produces thick fibrous roots, and suckers 

 and offsets ; in flowering sends up a bracted scape, bearing a spike or panicle 

 of yellowish flowers. Perianth tubular-funnel-shaped, pei-sistent, with 6 nar- 

 row almost equal divisions. Stamens projecting: anthers linear, versatile. 

 Pod containing numerous flat seeds. 



1. HTPOXYS, STAR-GRASS. (Name from the Greek, means acute at 

 the base ; the pod is often so. ) 



H. er6cta, the common species, in grass; with few-flowered scape 3' -8' 

 high, and leaves at length longer ; yellow star-like flower over ^' broad. 



2. NARCISSUS. ( Greek name, that of the young man in the mythology 

 who is said to have been changed into this flower. ) Most of them are per- 

 fectly hardy : fl. spring. 



3lT. posticus, Pokt's N. Leaves nearly flat; scape 1-flowered; crown of 

 the white flower edged with pink, hardly at all projecting from the yellowish 

 throat : in full double-flowered varieties the crown disappears. 



N. bifl6rus, Two-flowkred N., or Primrose Peerless of the old 

 gardeners, has two white or pale straw-colored flowers, and the crown iu the 

 form of a short yellow cup. 



N. poly^nthos is the })arent of the choicer sorts of Polyanthus N. ; 

 flowers numerous, white, the cup also wliite. 



