400 CXXXA'. SMILACEJE. 



poses. Scape bract eate, simple, bearing a thyrsus of many flowers ; flowers 

 in fascicles, sliort-pedicellcd, whitish or yellowish-green. — 1 or 2 Cape spe- 

 cies, Eastern. 



2. ASPARAGUS, Linn. 



Flowers bisexual or polygamo-dioecious. Perianth deeply 

 6-partcd, persistent ; sepals equal, 1-nerved, erecto-patent. 

 Stamens at the base of the sepals, and shorter. Ovules 2-3-9 

 in each cell ; style filiform, sometimes short, deciduous ; stig- 

 ma 3-fid, segments recurved. Berry globose, 1- or few-seeded. 

 — Asparagus and Asparagopsis, Kunth, I.e. pp. 57, 76. 



Undersln-ubs or branching herbs, often spinous. Leaves scale-like, sub- 

 tending pliyllocladia (or leaf-like ramuli or barren pedicels) of various 

 form. Pedinicles 1-flowered, mostly several together ; flowers small, 

 greenish or whitish. — Yery many species, of which A. Cajyensis (" Wagt 

 een beetjie ") is known to all. 



3. MYRSIPHYLLUM, "Willd. 



Flowers bisexual. Perianth deeply 6-parted, persistent ; 

 segments equal, 1-nerved, erecto-patent. Stamens at the base 

 of the segments, and shorter. Ovules 6 in each cell ; style ter- 

 minal ; stigma 3-lobed or 3-fid, sometimes undivided. Beriy 

 globose, 3-celled. Seeds in pairs. — Kuntli, I.e. p. 106. 



Erect or voluble herbs . Leaves scale-like, subtending 1-3 fertile pedun- 

 cles and 1 sterile (phyllocladium), leaf-like, more or less unequal-sided. 

 Scarcely distinguishable from Asj^aragxis., except that the " phyllocladia " 

 are more leaf-like and expanded, and solitary (not fascicled). — 8 species 

 are described. 



4. DICTYOPSIS, Harv. 



Flowers bisexual. Perianth tubular-campanulate, with a 

 short, spreading, 6-lobed limb, deciduous ; lobes ovate, 3- 

 nerved. Stamens inserted at the base of the perianth, but 

 partially adnate to the tube, included. Ovary narrowed at 

 base (substipitate), 3-celled; ovules in pairs?; style con- 

 tinuous, columnar ; stigmas 3, capitate. Berry globose, suc- 

 culent, 4-C-seeded ; seeds very convex dorsallv, flat in front. — 

 Rook.f. Bot. Mag. t. 5638. 



D. Thunberf/ii, Harv. {Rkscus retlciilatus, Tlmnb.), a plant common in 

 the woods of the Eastern districts, Caffraria, and Natal, is the type of this 

 genus. It has a zigzag, rigid, climbing stem, leafy throughout. The 

 leaves (not phyllocladia) arc subsessile, broadly-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 

 rigid, shortly acuminare, with an evident midrib, and many (5-9 on each 

 side) parallel secondary ribs, all slightly raised, and united, in a net-like 

 manner, by horizontal, simple, raised veinlcts. Peduncles simple and 1- 

 flowcred or snbraccmose and 3-5-ilowered, rising either from the axils of the 

 larger leaves or (toward the ends of the branclies) from scale-like bracts. 

 Berry .^ inch diameter. 



