16 FIVE CONSPICUOUS PLANT FAMILIES. 



modes of other noted families ; but continues its own conserva- 

 tive way of bearing its flowers closely packed on a thick spadix 

 and usually sheathing them with a handsome spathe. 



These tiny flowers are often imperfect and sometimes naked, 

 that is, without calyx or corolla. When the latter are present 

 they are seldom highly coloured. Under the microscope they 

 are excellent studies and sometimes very beautiful. 



As a family they show a keen appreciation of harmony in the 

 exquisite blending of colours in the spathe, or by its appearing 

 spotlessly white. 



The white calla, the stately queen of the greenhouses, Jack in 

 the pulpit and the skunk cabbage are all conspicuous members. 

 The golden club is the wayward exception, in having no spathe. 

 All are widely dissimilar in appearance and hold different posi- 

 tions in life, and yet they bear so strongly the marks of this 

 exclusive family as to be at once recognisable. The leaves are 

 mostly rather netted-veined and the plants contain an acrid, 

 pungent, watery juice. Many of them are also known as yield- 

 ing an edible farina, or starch. 



THE LILY FAMILY. 



LiltacecE. 



The lily family is one that is distinctly marked by its regular, 

 symmetrical flowers. Its floral envelope is a perianth that is 

 sometimes white or gaily coloured, but very rarely green. Al- 

 most invariably it is of six equal parts. There are six stamens 

 with two-celled anthers, and a three-celled ovary that is free 

 from the receptacle. The style is undivided. The leaves are 

 entire and parallel-veined, or sometimes netted-veined. 



The word lily would probably form as many different pic- 

 tures in the mind as there were individuals to whom it had been 

 presented. Some would at once recall the greenhouse calla, 

 which, as has already been said, is no lily at all and a member 

 of the arum family. Others would think of the pure resurrec- 

 tion lily and again others would think of the swarthy, upright 



