AMARYLLIDACE&. 23d 



CIX.-AMARYLLIDACEJE. 



Perennial herbs, rarely shrubs or undershrubs ; rootstock a 

 bulb tuber or corm, rarely an erect stock. Leaves radical, few or 

 many. Flowers few or solitary, on terminal leafless scapes, cften 

 umbellate ; bracts membranous or coloured, rarely herbaceous, the 

 outer under the umbel 1-3, rarely many, the inflorescence occa- 

 sionally racemose or panicled with scattered bracts. Perianth 

 regular or irregular, 2-seriate, 6-lobed or partite, sometimes with a 

 corona on the limb. Stamens 6, adnate to the base of the perianth- 

 segments, rarely epigynous ; filaments free or connate, anthers 

 erect or versatile. Ovary inferior, 3-celled, style slender, stigma 

 simple or 3-cleft ; ovules many, 2-seriate on the inner angles of the 

 cells, anatropous. Fruit inferior, usually a loculicidal capsule, 

 rarely fleshy and bursting irregularly. Seeds few or many ; albumen 

 fleshy, enclosing the small embryo. Species about 650, in temperate 

 and tropical regions. 



Leaves large, thick and fleshy, densely clus- 

 tered at the top of a rootstock or a simple 

 stem, spiny at the tip and usually armed 

 along the edges ; scape long, terminal, simple 

 or branching towards the apex : 



Inflorescence simple and spicate or com- 

 pound and thyrsoid ; stamens in bud in- 

 flexed under the tips of the per-segments, 

 much longer than the perianth ; filaments 

 filiform or flattened at the base ; style 

 filiform . . . . . .1. AGA.VE. 



Inflorescence loosely panicled ; stamens 

 about equalling the perianth ; filaments 

 thickened at the base ; style thickened in 

 the middle . . . . . .2. FURCRCEA. 



Leaves thin and flat or, if somewhat fleshy, 

 unarmed : 



Rootstock tuberous ; leaves strongly nerved 

 flat or plicate ; flowers in spikes or racemes ; 

 perianth yellow not showy : 

 Fruit opening by 3 valves or circum- 



scissile 3. HYPOXIS. 



Fruit a succulent berry . . . .4. CURCUUGO. 



