236 AMARYLLIDE^— AMARYLLIS TRIBE 



is a slight and delicate perfume exhaled to attract the few early 'bees to the 

 stores of honey in the grooves of the petals' inner face. 



3. SNO^VFLAKE {Lcucdjum). 



1. Summer Snowflake {L. (esHvum). — Spathe with several flowers, 

 tip entire ; leaves linear, keeled. Althoiigh this bulbous plant grows in moist 

 meadows, chiefly in the south-east counties, it was probably brought thither 

 long since from the woods of Germany and Italy, where it is a common 

 flower. It is taller than the snowdrop, though with much of its general 

 appearance, having white flowers, drooping, and the nearly equal segments 

 all tipped with green. The stalk is usually rather more than two feet high, 

 and is two-edged. The leaves, which are more than two, appear in winter, 

 but the flowers do not burst the enveloping spathe until May. They are 

 larger than the snowdrop blossoms, and more strongly scented. The French 

 call it Niviote ; the Germans, IFeisse veilchen ; the Dutch Si/deloos ; and the 

 Italians, Lcuroio. 



2. Spring Snowflake {L. rcrnum). — Spathe containing 1 or 2 flowers 

 only, tip divided ; leaves and flowers appearing together in spring. 

 Although this plant as a whole is smaller than the previous species, the 

 flowers are much the same size ; the two species are easily identified, how- 

 ever, by the tip of the spathe, the number of flowers, as well as by the time 

 of flowering and leafing. The Spring Snowflake is in flower in March and 

 April. It is not considered a real native, and it has only been found in 

 copses in Dorsetshire. 



Order LXXXVI. DIOSCORE^— YAM TRIBE. 



Stamens and pistils on different plants ; perianth 6-cleft ; stamens 6, 

 arising from the base of the perianth ; ovary inferior, 3-celled ; style deeply 

 3-cleft ; fruit, a dry, flat capsule, or, as in our only British genus, the Black 

 Bryony, a berry. This order consists chiefly of twining tropical shrubs. It 

 is less distinctly characterized as one of the Monocotyledonous Order than 

 most, by its leaves, for these have distinct stalks and netted veins. 



Black Bryony (Tdmm).—I'erianth single, deeply 6-cleft ; stigmas 3 ; 

 berry 3-celled. Name, supposed to be the Uva Taminia of Pliny. 



Br,ACK Bryony (Tdmus). 



Common Bryony (T. communis). — Leaves heart-shaped, pointed, glossy ; 

 stems climbing ; rootstock tuberous, egg-shaped, fleshy, with black exterior. 

 We have not many climbers in our woodlands, and the lovers of the pic- 

 turesque would be sorry to spare from them the graceful wreaths of the 

 Black Bryony. Its long leafy garlands entwine the boughs ; and from among 

 the large shining leaves, the long-stalked racemes of greenish-yellow flowers 

 hang down from May to July. These have little beauty when compared to 

 the handsome foliage which in autumn becomes changed to bronzy -purple ; 

 but when the woodland flowers have perished, and winter winds are sweeping 

 down the yellow leaves, the dark, smooth, egg-shaped berries of the plant 



