LEADING FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 345 



314, The Lily family (Lffi- 

 The Lily family num- 

 bers about 2600 species. 

 These are scattered over 

 most parts of the world. 

 They are especially abundant 

 in regions with a long dry 

 season, like South Africa, 

 the Mediterranean countries, 

 and parts of California. Most 

 Liliacece are herbs, though 

 a few are shrubs or small 

 trees. Many species, like the 

 lilies and tulips, have bulbs 

 which survive the winter or 

 a dry season, while the rest of 

 the plant dies to the ground 

 every year. Others, as the 

 lily of the valley and Sol- 

 omon's seal, spring from the 

 rootstocks (Fig. 60), and still 

 others, as the yucca and as- 

 paragus, have mainly fibrous 

 roots. The flowers are hy- 

 pogynous, often showy, and 

 the parts of the perianth fre- 

 quently all alike or nearly so. 

 The structure of a typical 

 seed is shown in Fig. 127. 



Ornamental plants of the 

 Lily family are among the 

 commonest in cultivation. 

 Familiar examples are the 

 true lilies, the hyacinths, the 

 star of Bethlehem, squill, tu- 

 lip, crown imperial, day lily, 



FIG. 280. White dogtooth violet 



A common plant of the Lily family, with the 

 stem springing from a deeply buried bulb. 

 The dotted line shows how much of the plant 

 was underground. About half natural size 



