LILIACEOUS PLANTS. 119 
having like all amaryllidous plants the calyx adnate to the fruit, 
not (as in all Liliacez) free from it. This showy genus Crinum 
furnishes also Victoria with a beautiful species, the Murray-Lily 
(Crinum flaccidum), not however to be found away from the 
Murray-River southward. 
How strikingly different the external features of plants may 
be, though floral structure may draw them into congruity, is well 
demonstrated by our so-called grass-trees, which pertain truly to 
the liliaceous order. These scientifically defined as Xanthorhceas 
from the exudation of yellowish sap, which indurates into resinous 
masses, have all the essential notes of the order, so far as 
structure of flowers and fruits is concerned, but their palmlike 
habit together with cylindric spikes on long and simple stalks is 
quite peculiar and impresses on landscapes, when these plants in 
masses are occurring, a singular feature. In a similar manner 
but by very different forms other huge Liliaceze give to some other 
countries a particular floral physiognomy ; so the gigantic Agaves 
and Fourcroyas in Central America, so the Cordylines or Palm- 
lilies and the amarmyllideous Phormium or Flax-lily in New 
Zealand, so treelike species of true Aloes in South Africa, so 
again the large Yuccas in North America, the colossal Draczna 
in the Canary-Islands, and our own Spear-lily or Doryanthes. 
Inasmuch as all these grand plants have found places in any 
pretensive gardens also here for scenic effect, the young student 
will find ready facilities to investigate the structure of the 
flowers and fruits of these noble lilaceous plants. 
The sepals of grasstrees are six and petal-like ; stamens six, 
adnate to the calyx ; anthers dorsifixed, two-celled ; style simple ; 
stigma undivided ; ovules numerous; fruit three-celled, dehiscent 
into three valves ; seeds 1-2 ripening in each cell, black, without 
any appendage ; embryo curved, placed transversely in the albu- 
men. In Victoria the number of Xanthorrheeas is reduced to 
two, although about a dozen species are comprised within the 
genus, which stretches over large portions of Australia but not, so 
far as known, beyond it. Our stem-bearing species, X. australis, 
is not a tall one; the second, X. minor, forms dwarf tufts with 
numerous flowerstalks and short spikes in heathy moist tracts, 
