The Origin of Wheat. 149 



existing wheat from this brilliant and ornamental 

 family, as well as to realise the true nature of its 

 relation to allied orders, we must first glance briefly 

 at the upward evolution of the other branches de- 

 scended from the true lilies, and then recur to the 

 downward evolution which finally resulted in the 

 production of the degenerate grasses. In the main 

 line of progressive development, the lilies gave origin 

 to the amaryllids, familiarly represented in England 

 by the snowdrops and daffodils, a family which is 

 technically described as differing from the lilies in 

 having an inferior instead of a superior ovary — that is 

 to say, with the pistil apparently placed below instead 

 of above the point where the petals and calyx-pieces 

 are inserted. From the evolutionar}' point of view, 

 however, this difference (as we saw in the case of the 

 goose-grasses) merely amounts to saying that the 

 amarj'Uids are tubular lilies, in which the tube has 

 coalesced with the walls of the ovary, so that the 

 petals seem to begin at its summit instead of at its 

 base. The change gives still greater certainty of 

 impregnation, and therefore benefits the race accord- 

 ingly. At the same time, the amaryllids, being 

 probably a much newer development than the true 

 lilies, have not yet had leisure to gain quite so firm a 

 footing in the world ; though on the other hand many 



