LILIACE^. 143 



stout, 8 to 12 feet high, nearly covered with large triangular foliaceous bracts (4 or 

 5 inches long), scariously margined : branches of the broatl oval panicle very stout, 

 horizontal or the upper ascending, 4 to 9 inches long, each with a terminal compact 

 cluster of 30 to 50 nearly sessile flowers involucrate witli large foliaceous bracts : 

 flowers greenish yellow, 3 to 3| inches long, the ovary a little shorter than the 

 perianth ; tube broadly funnelform, nearly half shorter than the suberect linear- 

 oblong lobes : stamens slightly exserted, shorter than the at last elongated style : 

 anthers 14 lines long: capsule acute, 2^ inches long and nearly an inch broad: 

 seeds 4 lines wide. 



On dry hills overlooking the Pacific near the Boundary Monument in the southwestern comer 

 of San Diego County. One of the most striking and beautiful species of the genus, named in 

 honor of Henry Shaw of St. Louis, as the founder and donor to that city of the "Missouri Botanic 

 Gardens." Now introduced into cultivation ; a detailed account of the flowers and flowering is 

 given by Dr. Engelmanu in Trans. Acad. St. Louis, iii. 537, t. 4. 



Order CVIII. LILIACE^. 



Terrestrial plants, mostly herbaceous, with perfect flowers, a regular corolladike 

 6-cleft or divided perianth (the 3 outer segments rarely dissimilar and more or less 

 foliaceous), stamens opposite the segments, with 2-celled anthers (or con fluently 1- 

 celled), and a superior 3-celled ovary becoming a few - many-seeded 3-celled capsule 

 or berry ; seeds anatropous or amphitropous, with small embryo surrounded by 

 copious albumen. — Stems chiefly from tunicated or scaly bulbs, or corms, or more 

 or less thickened rhizomes. Leaves sometimes net-veined. Flowers not spa- 

 thaceous except in a few umbelliferous genera, dimerous in Maianlhemum, dioe- 

 cious or polygamous in Nolina and in some Melanthaceous genera. The stamens 

 are only 3 (and ovary 1-celled) in Scoliopus, occasionally 3 with alternating staminodia 

 in a few other genera. — Watson, Proc. Amer. Acad. xiv. 213. 



A very large and important order, distributed all over the globe, excepting the polar regions, 

 as now generally defined including about 180 genera and 1900 species, of which 50 genera and 

 235 species are North American. ]\Iany are remarkable for the beauty and fragrance of their 

 flowers and have always been favorites in cultivation, as thg Lily, Tulip, Hyacinth, Lily of the 

 Valley, etc. Some others are cultivated for food, as Asparagus and various species of Allium ; 

 and many are valuable in medicine, among them the Srpiill {Scilla), Colchicum, Aloe, and Helle- 

 bore {Veratrum). The order forms a marked feature in the flora of California, and several of the 

 genera are either peculiar to the State or to the western coast of the continent. 



L Flowers with scarious bracts, a persistent ]ierianth with 1 - several-nerved segments, perigy- 



nous stamens with introrse anthers, and an undivided and mostly persistent style. Leaves with 



numerous longitudinal nerves and transverse veinlets. Pedicels often jointed. 



* Inflorescence umbellate upon a naked scape from a bulb or corm : fruit a loculicidal capsule : 



seeds more or less turgid, with close black testa. 



+- Bracts broad and spathaceons : bulb mostly tunicated : taste and odor alliaceous. 



1. Allium. Perianth deeply parted ; segments 1-nerved. Filaments naked, in 1 row. Ovary 



globose-obovate, 3-lobed. Style filiform, jointed upon the very short axis. Seeds 1 or 

 2 in each cell. Pedicels not jointed. 

 +- -^ Bracts several, distinct : corm coated, not alliaceous : capsule scarcely lobed, beaked, 



several-seeded. 

 ++ Perianth 6-parted ; segments spreading, closely 2 - 3-nerved : stamens in 1 row : capsule sub- 

 globose, subsessile. 



2. Muilla. Flowers greenish white. Filaments filiform, naked, adnate at base. Pedicels not 



jointed. 



3. Bloomeria. Flowers yellow, on jointed pedicels. Filaments elongated, free, surrounded at 



base by a cup-shaped winged appendage. 



