513 



dorifics. Much of the substance of these last-mentioned 

 is mucilaginous, which involves and separates their acrid 

 particles. Hence they are not dangerous in substance, 

 but their expressed juice, deprived of viscidity, is fatal." 



Order 10. Coronari/e. " A coronary or garland 

 flower was anciently such as, on account of its beauty, 

 was used for ornamental wreaths." 



" Ornithogalum has much in common with Allium, but 

 wants the spatha. S cilia is so nearly related to Ornitho- 

 galum, that they are scarcely to be distinguished but by 

 the breadth " (some say the proportion) " of their fila- 

 ments. Hyacinthus and Scylla are with difficulty distin- 

 guishable, though the latter has six petals, the former a 

 monopetalous six-cleft corolla, but this is in some in- 

 stances so deeply divided as nearly to approach the 

 latter." 



" In this order the root is either tuberous, a solid bulb, 

 or, as in Lilium, a scaly one. The leaves of Aloe, Yucca, 

 Agave, and Bromelia, are, as it were, a bulb above ground, 

 whose dilated, fleshy, permanent scales remain year after 

 year; just as the bulb of the Lily consists only of the 

 perennial bases of the foliage. In the Aloe tribe, not 

 merely the base, but the whole leaf is perennial. Who- 

 ever is ignorant of this, cannot fail to go astray in study- 

 ing the order in question." 



" The stem is simple, often a mere scapus, occasionally 

 leafy, in consequence of a partial elevation of the radical 

 leaves." 



" The flower, destitute of spatha or any sort of calyx, 

 consists of six petals." (Linnaeus terms them such, be- 

 cause they fall off when the flowering is over.) " In 

 Ornithogalum some species have the under side of the 

 corolla green, which part therefore is permanent here, as 

 consisting of corolla and calyx united. In some kinds of 

 Anthericum, and in Veratrum, the. petals are likewise 

 permanent, but in a faded condition. The stamens are 

 universally six, three of them interior. Germen superior. 



VOL. II. 2 L 



