LILIACEOUS PLANTS. 63 



because it merges gradually into the scape, which bears 

 the flower, and the petioles of the leaves, which sheathe 

 the scape. The swollen mass is called a bulb. 



83. The leaves are two in number, gradually narrowing 



at the base into sheaths. If you hold one of them up to 



the light, you will observe that the veins do not, as in the 



leaves of the Dicotyledonous plants, form a network, but 



X^k run only in one direction : namely, from 



If <^v end to end of the leaves. Such leaves are 



1 1 ^1 consequently called straight-veined. 



\ 84. In the flower there is 110 appearance 

 vV of a green calyx. There are six yellow 

 Fig. 83. leaves, nearly alike, arranged in two sets, 

 an outer and an inner, of three each. In such cases, we 

 shall speak of the coloured leaves collectively as the peri- 

 anth. If the leaves are free from each other we shall 

 speak of the perianth as polyphyllous, but if they cohere 

 we shall describe it as gamoi>hyllous. Stripping off the 

 leaves of the perianth, we find six stamens with long 

 upright anthers which open along their outer edges. If 

 the anthers be pulled off, the filaments will be found to 

 terminate in long, sharp points. 



The pistil (Fig. 83) has its three parts- 

 ovary, style, and stigma well marked. The 

 stigma is evidently formed by the union of 

 three into one. The ovary, when cut across, 

 is seen to be three-celled (Fig. 84), and is, Fig. 84. 

 therefore, syncarpous. 



Fig. 83. Pistil of Dog's-tooth Violet. 

 Fig. 84. Cross section of the pistil. 



