THE AMARYLLIS FAMILY 



157 



Other wild Amaryllids are Crinum ensifolium {Kan. Boggi- 

 kanda), common on swampy river banks throughout India, and 

 Curculigo ^orcliioi- 

 des {Kan. N el a tale), 

 a little plant, with 

 about three short 

 leaves from a vertical 

 root-stock and yellow 

 star-like flow- 

 ers, appearing 

 in June. 



Some of the 

 Amaryllids 

 have V e r y 

 li a n d s o m e 

 ilowers and are 

 prized in gardens, e.g., the 

 Amaryllis with its large, red 

 Hower-bells; the Eucharis 

 Lily {Eucharis grandi flora) 

 with fragrant, white flowers, 

 embellished by a fleshy mem- 

 brane within the perianth 

 stretching from filament to 

 filament and forming a cup; 

 the white Pancratium also 

 with its six stamens united by a fine membrane; and the pretty, 

 rose Thunder- Lily {Zep/i grant hes rosea). 



A family closely related to the Amarjdlids is that of the Bromeliacew 

 to which the Pine- Apple (Bromelia ananas — Plate No. G56) belongs. 

 The sweet and tasteful fruit — a collective fruit — consists of numerous 

 flowers and bracts, all grown together in a mass. The crown of 

 leaves, which looks so out of place, growing apparently out of the 

 fruit, belongs really to the flowerless top of the spike, and is capable 

 of developing into a fresh plant. — The fibre of the leaves is used, and 

 the plant is often grown for fences. 



Another allied family is the Yam Family (DioscoreacecB). They 

 have stems twining from left to right, and cordate or digitate, palmately 

 net-veined leaves, in whose axils often brown tubers aro borne. The 



Fig-. 144. — Thunder-Lily. 



