Lii.ui.i.-.J LIMA' I X 



them is still wanted. Under these circnnutai 



with the supposed Order or Suborders that havi ol I 



gather togettu r, in tolerably natural groups, undi r the Ordi r of Lil • tint 



do , Qot belong t" the other parts of the Lalial Alliance. It will i 



for some botanist, with ample materials and g 1 gent ral \i' ws, i-. tttud) tin 



the structure of these interesting plants, and out ol tli • 

 and solid classification, tn the meanwhile, ;t few general 

 as arc here adopted arc all that it «ill 1m- useful to bring forward, 

 Tin- favourite distinctions among the majority of systematic 

 which the Liliaoeee, Asphodelese, and As] r Smilai 



known. Brown thought to distinguish them by their Beeds ami fruit : a 

 first a spongy and dilated or winged Beedcoat and a capsule, rarely a • . th< 



second, a black brittle Beedcoat ; and, to tin- third, a membranous - 

 \\ ith regard to the colour of tin- Beedcoat or it-- texture, I must remark firstly, 

 would be slou to recognise such a peculiarity as a valid distinction evi n • 

 thai a-- an ordinal characteristic, it is still less admissible; that excepti tch a 



character appear, as might !><• expected, in all directions, and prove it !<• be wholly 



illusory. By the great botanist just mentioned, the distinct! >f Smi 



ened by adding to its character an embryo remote from tin- hilum, and a . 



that this circumstance deserves more attention than it has hitherto 



theless, Streptopus, which isexpr — ly named by Brown as one of his Smil 



(he embryo next the hilum ; so that this character also i~ untenable. Battling, who 



retains Smilaceaa, adds to the distinction of the Order a minute embryo, but then he 



admits such genera ;.s A-| ara^'us ami Drymophila, in which the embryo is tl 



that of Asphodelese. Bernhardi assigns to his Tulipaceas anthers attached to the 



filament by a fine point lodged in a narrow canal, and an infloresci oce without mem- 

 branous spathes ; or, as Jussieu expressed it, Flares nudi, while he giv< b As] 

 anthers attached to the filament by a broad base, and membranous bracts, coml 

 moreover under the name of Alliacese, the Asphodelese, Hypoxia's, I 

 AmaryDids and others, a proposition in which 1 think no judicious botanist would 

 concur. But the character derived from the anther of Tulipacese, ii valid, which 

 Kunth denies, is triHin_ r ; and as to the peculiarities asserted to exist in the in: 

 cencc of these plants, such membranous bracts do not exist in Km- Vspho- 



deleea more than in 1'ritillaria persica among Tulinacca.', while the G all the 



habit of the former group, and if it were otherwise it would he idle i 

 a character for the mark uf a natural Order. M. Adrien de Josaieu I 

 reduced these Orders to two, \i/.. Liliaceae and Smilacese, giving the former an undi 

 vided style and parallel veined lea\es, while the latter have a triple St) le and r. ti. 

 leaves. In thisreeped he appears to adopt the views which are taken in thi 

 work. That good and high grounds of distinction will one da} he found ! I 

 hast of the groups her.- admitted is probable ; hut the) bai 



\eivd, QOT is it likely that the) will he until the true nature of the OVllll -. tl 



of their foramen, the direction of the embryo, and similar circumsl 



been inquired into with scrupulous accuracy. In the meanwhile the followii 



taken is the chief peculiarities of the secti.'Ils How admit'- 



Tfi.it'E.t: are the l.ilia of .Jussieu, a couple of his genera being < v ll 

 may lie justly regarded as the type of the Order of l.ili. -. Bull-. 

 or not at all branched, flowers usually large and gaily coloured, without m< 

 spathes, hut axillary to haves hut little changed, the calyx an I 

 search- united, although often arranged in a tube, ant! 

 finedrawn point of a stiff filament, and finally a drj Beed v< 

 from all that follow. They are anion:.' the gayest •: our garden I 

 l-'ritillaries.and Dogs' Tootii Violets testify ; one of them indeed, th I 

 cum. a plant that covers the plains of Syria with it- Bcarl I ti- ■■ 

 from having been selected by our Saviour as the subject of allusion i 

 Mount. The Gloriosa, a tuberous plant from India, hard.;-. 



The llr.Minocu u i or 1 > v\ LlUES, differ from the 1 

 calyx and corolla being so joined to each other as t" form a tul 

 and in their want of a bulb in many instances. The Agapanthi 

 vated in \ases for decorating architectural ga 

 more remarkable among them ; hut Punkia, Hemerocalhs, 1 - 

 mias and Tritomas, are also Bpecies of familiar occurrem 

 the celebrated flax of N. Zealand, with its bard | 

 flowers, must he considered to connect the pn & nt dh ision with t: 



There is so little to separate AX01NE r. or \ 

 anything can be named except their succulent f- 



