200 



LILIACE/E. 



[Endogens. 



Order LX1I. LILIACEiE.— Lilyworts. 



Lilia, Juts. Gen. 48. (1789).— Narcissi, the first sect. Ibid. 54. (1789).— HemerocaUideae, R. Brown 

 I'rodr. 295. (1810).— LUiacese, DC. Theor. Ettm. 1. 249. ( 1813) ; Endl. Gen. lv. ; Metsner. p. 398 ; 

 Kunth, Enum. 4. 215 ; Ann. sc. 2. ser. 18. 290.— Tulipaceae, DC. Ess. MM. 297. (1816) ; Bernh. in 

 Botan. Zeit. Oct. 1835.— Coronariie, Agardh Aphor. 165. (1823).— Asparagi and Asphodeli, Juss. 

 (1789).— Asphodeleae, R. Brown Prodr. 275. (18101 ; Kunth, Enum. 4. 280.— AUiaceae, Aloinae, 

 llyacinthina., Dracjenaceae, Link Ilandb. vol. I. (1829).— Asparaginic, /&.— Asparagese, DC. and 

 Duby, 458. (1828).— Asparaginic, Ach. Rich. Diet. Class 2. 20. (1822); Nouv. Ettm. ed. 4. 430. 

 (1828).— Convallariacese, Link Handb. 184. (1829.) 



Diagnosis. — Lilial Endogens with a naked perianth, flat when wittering, anthers turned 

 inwards, consolidated styles, and fleshy albtimen. 



Herbaceous plants, shrubs or trees, with bulbs, or tubers, or rhizomes, or fibrous 

 roots. Leaves narrow, with parallel veins, only in a very small number expanded into 

 a broad blade with diverging veins; 

 never articulated with the stem. Flow- 

 ers large and showy, or small and 

 green, with all kinds of intermediate 

 gradations; in nearly all cases Q ; never, 

 perhaps, truly $ $ . Calyx and corolla 

 confounded, coloured alike, regular or 

 nearly so, occasionally cohering in a 

 tube. Stamens 6, inserted into the 

 sepals and petals. Anthers opening 

 inwards. Ovary free, 3-celled, many- 

 seeded ; style 1 ; stigma simple, or 

 3-lobed ; ovules anatropal or amphi- 

 tropal. Fruit succulent, or dry and 

 capsular, 3-celled. Seeds packed one 

 upon another in 1 or 2 rows ; embryo 

 with the same direction as the seed, in 

 the axis of fleshy albumen, or uncer- 

 tain in direction and position, occa- 

 sionally very minute. 



The beautiful creations which con- 

 stitute the Order of Lilies would seem 

 to be well known to all the world ; for 

 what have been so long admired and 

 universally cultivated as they ? Never- 

 theless, there are few great groups of 

 plants which have been more neglected 

 by the exact botanist, or 

 which stand more in need 

 of his patient attention. 

 The best proof of the 

 justice of this assertion is 

 to be found in the unsteady 

 and conflicting views of 

 botanists as to its limits, 



or the subordinate groups Fig. CXXXV1. Fig. CXXXVII. 



which it contains. While 



one writer breaks Lilyworts up into a number of distinct Orders, another refuses to re- 

 cognise the limits assigned to them by his predecessor, and prefers a new arrangement, 

 just as unsatisfactory as that which it succeeds. We have seen the classification of 

 Jussieu and Brown break down beneath a rigorous scrutiny ; it has been succeeded 

 by schemes of Bartling, Endlicher, Kunth, Meisner, Bernhardi and others, all alike 

 un s a t isfactory ; and I doubt whether we can be truly said to know more about the true 

 characteristics and exact structure of a very large proportion of this Order, than we 

 did twenty years ago. Genera in plenty have been added, but a good combination of 



Fig. (XXXVI — 1. Section of seed of Aspliodelus ramosus ; 2. of Tulipa hortensis. 

 Fig. CXXXVII. — Arthropodium paniculatum. 1. A flower magnified; 2. a ripe capsule: 3. a 

 transverse section of it ; 4. a vertical section of a seed. 



