LEADING FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 345 



314. The Lily family (Lili- 

 ace<z). 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 



vv J-T- T- ;i_ .1 FIG. 280. White dogtooth violet 



true lilies, the hyacinths, the 



J A common plant of the Lily family, with the 



Star of Bethlehem, Squill, tU- stem springing from a deeply buried bulb. 



T . i 1 1-1 The dotted line shows how much of the plant 



lip, Crown imperial, day Illy, was underground. About half natural size 



