GROUP IV. — PHANEROGAMIA : ANGlOSPKRMiK : MONOCOTYLEDONES. 557 



capsule, usually extrorse anthers, and separate styles. Mostly rhizomatous 

 plants. 



Not miny genera are common in cultivation ; among these Gloriosa, Uvularia, 

 and Veratrum may be mentioned ; Veratrum album and nigrum have broad 

 ovate leaves. 



Tofieldia i)alu)itris, the Scottish Asphodel, has ensiform radical leaves ; the 

 flowers, which are pale green, are disposed in a raceme on a scape ; it occurs 



Fio. 3G3.— The underground part of a flowering plant of Colchicum autumwule. A Seen 

 in front ; /; the corm ; s' »" catnphyllary leaves embracing the flower-stalk ; vch. its base, 

 from which proceed the roots, ?c. B Lon-^itudinal section : hha, brown membrane which 

 envelops all the underground parts of the plant; at the flower and leaf-stalk of the 

 previous year which has died down, its swollen basal portion (fc) only remaining as a 

 reservoir of food-inaterinls for the new plant now in flower. The new plant is a lateral 

 shoot from the base of the corm Q:), consisting of the axis, from the base of which proceed 

 the roots (w), and the middle part of which (fc') swells up in the next year into a corm, the 

 olil corm (fc) disappearing ; the axis bears the sheath-leaves (« *' »") and the foliage-leaves 

 (I' I") ; the flowers (b h') are placed in the axils of the uppermost foliage -leaves, the axis 

 itself terminating amongst the flowers. (After Sachs.) 



