258 LILIACEM. [ ASPARAGUS. 



Seeds flattened; perianth campa- 

 nulate 6. UBGINEA. 



Underground perennial stem very small or 

 (in Asphodelus) sometimes none ; root- 

 fibres large, many, usually some or all 

 fleshy or tuberous ; leaves radical ; cap- 

 sule loculicidal : ' 



Ovules 2 in each cell ; capsule 3-que- 

 trous ; leaves J-terete or terete and 

 fistular 7. ASPHODELUS. 



Ovules 4 or more in each cell ; capsule 



deeply 3-winged ; leaves flat . . 8. CHLOROPHYTUM. 



1. ASPARAGUS. Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 314. 



Undershrubs with a stout creeping rootstock. Stems erect, 

 straggling or climbing, terete, grooved. Leaves minute, scale-like,, 

 bearing in their axils tufts of needle-like or flattened axillary cla- 

 dodes. Flowers usually 2-sexual, small or minute, axillary, solitary 

 fascicled or in racemes, pendulous ; pedicels jointed, bracts minute 

 or obsolete. Perianth petaloid, 6- partite, campanulate or funnel- 

 shaped. Stamens 6, adnate to the base of the perianth- segments, 

 filaments free, anthers oblong. Ovary 3-gonons ; style columnar ; 

 stigmas 3, recurved ; ovules 2 or more in each cell. Fruit a globose 

 pulpy berry. Seeds few or solitary by abortion ; testa black, 

 brittle, embryo dorsal, albumen hard. Species about 100,. in 

 Europe Temp, and Trop. Asia and in Africa. 



Branches 3-quetrous, smooth ; spines suberect 

 or subrecurved, J-J in. long ; cladodes J-l 

 in. long, in tufts of 2-6, slender falcate, 

 acuminate, channelled beneath ; ovules 6-8 

 in each cell. A tall climbing much branched 

 undershrub . . . . . . 1. A. racemosu-s. 



Stem tall, stout, smooth ; branches ashy- 

 white, grooved and angled, the angles mi- 

 nutely scabrid ; spines stout, straight, J-f 

 in. long ; cladodes in dense tufts of 6-20, 

 slender, terete, filiform, soft ; ovules many 

 in each csll. A suberect shrub . . 2. A. adscendens. 



