Prats LXIX. 
(A, B) ASPHODELUS crrasirerus, Gay; (C) A. ausus, Mill. ; 
(D) A. microcarpus, Viv. 
Natural Order Littacrez. 
Gen. Cuar.—Flowers yellow white or pinkish. Pedicels solitary, 
or sometimes fasciculate in the axils of the bracts, jointed. Divisions of 
the perianth spreading. Stamens having their filaments dilated at the 
base, so as to enclose the ovary. Sfyle entire. Seeds angular. “ Plants, 
annual or perennial, or only flowering once after having lived many 
years under the form of a simple rosette. Radical fibres very slender 
in the first case (when annual); cylindrical, and of medium size in the 
third (when a rosette, only flowering once); or fusiform, fleshy, and 
sometimes very thick, in the second case (when perennial), and then 
serving to nourish one or several axillary buds on the neck of the root 
(collet), by means of which the plant perpetuates itself after the decay 
of the stem, which is always annual, though the root is perennial.’”* 
(A, B.) Seec. Coar.—Flowers large; bracts at first blackish (gene- 
rally fulvous, Gay). Divisions of perianth rounded at apex; nerve 
russet-coloured (nerve flesh-coloured, Gay). Hilaments longer than 
the divisions of perianth, protruded from the buds, the claws abruptly 
contracted above, slightly papillose at edge only. Fruit turning yellow, 
globular, depressed, as large as a cherry, when ripe (in specimen B) 
having the valves transversely furrowed, but without prominent veins. 
Stem unbranched, or having one or two short, simple branches. adi- 
cal fibres swollen, the enlarged part being nearly cylindrical, narrow, 
about eight times as long as broad, gradually thickened downwards. 
Asphodelus cerasiferus, Gay, Trois. Esp. Asphod. in Ann. Sc. Nat. 
4me. sér. tom. vil. cah. 2. A. albus, Gren. et Godr. (non Willd.) FI. de 
Fr. i. 224. 
(C.) Spec. Cuar.— Bracts brown-black. Divisions of perianth hav- 
ing a green, central nerve. Filaments papillose-scabrous up to the 
middle; the claws oblong, cuneate-ovate, gradually attenuated above. 
Capsule of intermediate side, ellipsoid. Stem simple or shortly branched.” 
Gay, Ann. Sc. 1. ¢. 
Asphodglus albus, Mill. Gard. Dict. (Svo ed. 1768) i. 3; Willd. Sp. 
Plant. (1799) p. 1838. A. spherocarpus, Gren. et Godr. Fl. de Fr. iu. 
223, et 4. subalpinus, Gren. et Godr. 1. ¢. p. 224. 
(D.) Srnec. Cuar.—Divisions of perianth oblong-lanceolate, scarcely 
* The part within inverted commas is translated from an unpublished monograph 
of Asphodelus by M. J. Gay (1856 to 1860). 
