730 



THE SUBDIVISIONS OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



produced. With the exception of the Juncacece the flowers are conspicuous and 

 brightly coloured. 



Juncacece. — Plants of grass-like habit with inconspicuous glumaceous perianth, 

 six stamens, and superior ovary, which is 3- or 1-celled. Pollination by wind. 

 Pollen-grains united into tetrads. Two well-known genera represented in this 

 country are Juncus (with about 190 species), which includes the Rushes, and 

 Luzida, the Woodrush. In aU there are some 250 species of Juncacese. 



Liliacece. — Herbaceous plants with bulbs, rhizomes, and corms, conspicuous 



Fig. il3.— A sphodeltis ramosus at Paestum (Southern Italy). 



flowers with petaloid perianth, stamens 6, carpels 3, united, ovary 3-celled superior. 

 Pollination by insects. Fruits are capsules or berries. 



A number of tribes may be distinguished: (1) Colchicacece having usually 

 extrorse anthers, septicidal capsules, and distinct styles. They include Veratrum, 

 Colchicum auturanale, the Meadow Saflron (fig. 412 *), which sends up its flowers in 

 autumn, its leaves and ripening capsule next spring. Bulbocodium (fig. 412*) is 

 frequent in cultivation. The Bog Asphodel (Narthecium) also belongs to this 

 tribe. (2) Asphodeloidece include forms generally with rhizomes, rarely bulbs; 

 anthers introrse, fruits capsular. Examples are Asphodelv^, e.g. A. ramosus 

 (fig. 413), which covers considerable tracts of country in southern Europe, forming 

 regular plantations, and was supposed to carpet the Elysian fields; Paradisea 



