SOME IMPORTANT FAMILIES OF ANGIOSPERMS 299 



tulips, the hyacinths, the lily-of -the- valley, and the yellow and 

 orange day lilies. Aspidistra and Sansevieria are much 

 raised in greenhouses because of their ornamental foliage. 

 Among the food plants of the family are the onions, leeks, 

 garlic, and chives, all members of the genus Allium, and the 

 asparagus. Besides the species of asparagus that is culti- 

 vated for its edible shoots, several are grown for ornamental 

 purposes. The " smilax " of florists (which is not a Smilax 

 but a Myrsiphyllum) is a near relative of the asparagus. 

 Some members of the family living in tropical countries are 

 important fiber plants ; one of them furnishes " bowstring 

 hemp." Of several drug plants that belong to this family, 

 the most important commercially are some of the Aloes. 

 The juice of their leaves supplies the drug known as " bitter 

 aloes," as well as certain valuable coloring materials. Some 

 species of Aloe are much used in warmer countries as orna- 

 mental plants, and in colder climates they are common in 

 greenhouses. Among the familiar wild flowers of the United 

 States and Canada are the bell wort, the dogtooth violets 

 (which are not violets at all), Solomon's seal, false Solomon's 

 seal, and the Trilliums. The Yuccas are conspicuous plants 

 of the southern United States, Mexico, and Central America. 

 The stems of one species of Yucca and of a few other members 

 of the lily family have a method of growth in thickness 

 which, though quite different from that which we have studied 

 in the pine, results in some species in the development of 

 trees. One of these is the " dragon tree," found in the 

 Canary Islands, which grows to a height of fifty to sixty feet. 

 A famous tree of this species on the island of Teneriffe was 

 seventy feet high when it was destroyed by a storm in 1878 

 (see Fig. 135). 



305. The Amaryllis Family. This is very nearly related 

 to the lily family; the members of the two differ in small 

 details in the structure of the flowers and fruits. In the 

 amaryllis family, the sepals, petals, and stamens are attached 



