120 LILIACEOUS PLANTS. 
covering in various particular southern districts occasionally a 
vast extent of country to the exclusion of almost all other con- 
spicuous plants. 
Our Liliaceze present us with several curious forms ; thus the 
genus Thysanotus comprises the Fringe-lilies, one of which, Thysa- 
notus Patersoni, is a delicate humble climber. A kind of Fringe- 
lily is included also in the genus Arthropodium, its three inner 
sepals being fringed like in Thysanotus ; but the filaments of the 
former are bearded, those of the latter are smooth. Both genera 
produce here purple flowers ; but while the seeds of Arthropodium 
are without appendages, those of Thysanotus are appendiculate. 
The Grass-lily, which during spring gives to many of our meadows 
by its frequency quite a purple hue, is Arthropodium strictum. 
The genus-name arose from the articulated stalklets of the flowers. 
Other genera with bearded stamens occur here; for instance 
Bulbine, Tricoryne, Stypandra and Dianella ; of these Dianella 
produces berries usually of beautiful blue color. Bulbine and 
Stypandra have both valvate dehiscent fruits, the latter genus 
sharing in the rigid habit of the Dianellas and receiving its name 
from the beards of the filaments. The most common of the two 
Australian Bulbines contributes by its racemes of yellow flowers 
much to the gayness of our flower-fields during spring ; this is 
Bulbine bulbosa, whereas its tender sister, Bulbine semibarbata, 
has half the stamens smooth and a fibrous not tuberous or bulbous 
root. That of Bulbine bulbosa formed in a roasted state a portion 
of the vegetable aliment of the natives in times past. Tricoryne 
elatior, a common branched herb with small yellow flowers 
received its generic designation from the three somewhat club- 
shaped lobes, of which the fruit consists. The searcher of plants 
during our spring months cannot fail to gather the humble Cha- 
mescilla corymbosa or Dwarf-squill with its lovely blue flowers. 
It differs from **@ allied Cesias in its few flowers, neither 
mass iS ‘es nor spirally twisted after flowering, also in 
often many seeds contained in each of the 
it, the seeds being moreover lenticular-com- 
and destitute of an arillar appendage or 
ata is the common blue-flowered Grass-lily 
Fate 
