Puate LXXXIX. 
APHYLLANTHES monspewiensis, L. 
Natural Order Lin1acEem. 
Gen. Cuar.—Flowers terminal, solitary or 2-3, having a large 5-fid 
bract and 3 simple bracts forming an involucre. Perianth petaloid, deci- 
duous, of six divisions, distinct and spreading above, the long claws united 
below and forming a tube. Stamens 6, inserted at the top of the claws, 
unequal, the 3 outer ones shorter ; filaments filiform, glabrous; anthers 
bilocular, introrse, emarginate at apex, bifid at base, fixed above the base at 
the back, cells parallel, united towards the middle by the narrow connective. 
. . . Ovary free, stipitate, oblongo-fusiform, trigonous, trilocular. Ovules 
solitary in the cells, inserted on the central axis by means of short 
funicles, amphitropal. Style terminal, filiform, triquetrous above; stigma 
3-fid, enlarged into 3 recurved lobes diverging above. Capsule covered 
by the persistent bracts, membranous, trilocular, loculicidal, 3-valved, 
valves bearing the septa in the middle. Seeds solitary in the cells ; testa 
erustaceous, black; embryo in the axis of fleshy albumen.—Parl. FI. 
Ital. ii. 366. 
Spec. Cuar.—The three outer bracts are of thinner and more membra- 
nous texture than the innermost 5-fid bract, they are also distinctly 
nerved; all are more or less deeply bifid, the intermediate bract being 
most deeply divided and having a long awn proceeding from the notch ; 
the innermost bract is less than half the size of the outermost and largest 
bract. Innermost 5-fid bract at first sight resembles a calyx, but what 
appears to be a tube is in reality open along one side, so that the bract can be 
unrolled; it is of an almost horny texture and destitute of nerves. Ylower 
shortly pedicellate within the bract, divisions rather pale blue inclining 
to lilac, darker along midrib, obovate on long claw. Leaves reduced to 
sheaths at the base of each flowering stem. Stems unbranched, rush-like, 
tufted, springing from a short, scaly, branched, and matted rhizome. Roots 
at first white, long, similar to those of Asparagus acutifolius, L. 
Aphyllanthes monspeliensis, L. Sp. Plant. p. 422; Gren. et Godr. Fl. de 
Fr. iii. 225; Woods, Tour. Fl. p. 874; Ardoino, Fl. Alp. Mar. p. 383. 
Haxirat.—Mentone, from hill side above the head of St. Jacques Valley, 
where I gathered the specimen figured, on 12th of April, 1865. 
Remarxns.—A phyllanthes monspeliensis, L., the sole representative of its 
genus, is one of those plants whose’presence in Hurope it is difficult to 
explain. Intermediate in structure and aspect between the lily and the 
