AMARYLUS FAMILY 477 



3. RoMULEA. — A closely allied genus with a corm : short scape ; 

 linear, radical leaves; polysymmetric perianth with a short tube 

 surrounded by a longer spathe ; perianth-leaves 6, recurved at the 

 tip; stigmas 3, 2-fid, with linear segments. (Name from Romulus, 

 founder of Rome.) 



I. R. Coliunnce, the only British species, a small plant, 3 — 4 

 in. high, with a minute corm^ very narrow leaves, and i — 3 flowers, 

 on a short stalk, greenish outside, whitish, with purple veins and 

 yellow at the base, inside. — It grows only on a sandy pasture called 

 the Warren, at Dawlish, Devon, and in the Channel Islands. — Fl. 

 March — May. Perennial. 



4. SiSYRiNCHiUM (Blue-eyed Grass). — Fibrous rooted plants with 

 linear, equitant, radical leaves ; tall, umbellate scape ; polysym- 

 metric perianth with short tube; short style; and 3 undivided 

 Ihread-like stigmas. (Name of uncertain etymology.) 



1. S. angustif olium {Ksirrow-lesi\ed, Blue-eyed Grass). — A pretty 

 plnnt, about a foot high, with linear leaves and a 2-edged, winged 

 peduncle bearing i — 6 blue flowers, wath a short spathe and pointed 

 perianth-leaves. — Bogs, Galway, Kerry and Cork. — Fl. July, August. 

 Perennial. 



2. S. calif ornicum, a species with 4 — 5 yellow flowers, with blunt 

 perianth-leaves, a native of California and Oregon, was found in 

 June, 1896, by Rev. E. S. Marshall, in marshy ground at Rosslare, 

 CO. Wexford. 



5. Gladiolus. — Herbaceous plants with corms ; leaves sword- 

 shaped, equitant : flowers in a tall, i -sided spike, monosymmetric, 

 with a short, curved perianth-tube, and 6 segments, slightly 2-lipped ; 

 style slender; stigmatic lobes 3, widening upwards. (Name a Latin 

 diminutive from glddius, a sword, referring to the form of the leaves, 

 pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, the /having sound 

 like y.) 



I. G. illyricus, the only British species.- Corm o\ate, small, 

 with many bulbils and a sheath of slender, parallel fibres ; stem i 

 — 2 feet high, leafy ; leaves slender, glaucous ; flowers crimson, 4 — 

 8 in a spike ; seeds narrowly winged. — In the New Forest and the 

 Isle of Wight ; rare. — Fl. June, July. Perennial. 



Ord. LXXX. Amaryllide/e. — Amaryllis Family 



An extensive Order, principally composed of herbaceous plants 

 with bulbous stems, sw^ord-shaped, radical leaves, and showy flowers, 

 w^hich are distinguished from the Liliaceae by their inferior ovary, 

 that organ in the Lily Family being superior. The perianth consists 

 of 6 leaves in 2 whorls, sometimes with a tubular coronet at the 



