AMARYLLIDACE&. 239 
CIX.—_AMARYLLIDACE. 
Perennial herbs, rarely shrubs or undershrubs; rootstock a 
bulb tuber or corm, rarely an erect stock. Leaves radical, few or 
many. Flowers few or solitary, on terminal leafless scapes, cften 
umbellate ; bracts membranous or coloured, rarely herbaceous, the 
outer under the umbel 1-3, rarely many, the inflorescence occa- 
sionally racemose or panicled with scattered bracts. Perianth 
regular or irregular, 2-seriate, 6-lobed or partite, sometimes with a 
corona on the limb. Stamens 6, adnate to the base of the perianth- 
segments, rarely epigynous; filaments free or connate, anthers 
erect or versatile. Ovary inferior, 3-celled, style slender, stigma 
simple or 3-cleft ; ovules many, 2-seriate on the inner angles of the 
cells, anatropous. Fruit inferior, usually a loculicidal capsule, 
rarely fleshy and bursting irregularly. Seeds few or many ; albumen 
fleshy, enclosing the small embryo.—Species about 650, in temperate 
and tropical regions. 
Leaves large, thick and fleshy, densely clus- 
tered at the top of a rootstock or a simple 
stem, spiny at the tip and usually armed 
along the edges ; scape long, terminal, simple 
or branching towards the apex :— 
Inflorescence simple and spicate or com- 
pound and thyrsoid ; stamens in bud in- 
flexed under the tips of the per-segments, 
much longer than the perianth ; filaments 
filiform or flattened at the base ; : il 
filiform ‘ : . 1. AGAVE. 
Inflorescence heals cuits stamens 
- about equalling the perianth; filaments 
thickened at the base ; vad le thickened in 
the middle . ; . 2. Furcraa. 
Leaves thin and flat or, if eine fleshy, 
unarmed :— 
Rootstock tuberous ; leaves strongly nerved 
flat or plicate ; flowers in spikes or racemes ; 
perianth yellow not showy :— 
Fruit opening by 3 valves or circum- 
scissile . ‘ : ; ° . 3. Hypoxis. 
Fruit a succulent berry . . ‘ . 4. CuRCULIGO 
