2'2-l ENGLISH BOTANY 



bling tliosc of Narthecium Ossifragum in miniature. Flowering stem 

 Avith a i'ew similar leaves at the base, and occasionally a single bract- 

 like leaf near the middle, 2 to 8 inches high, terminated by a dense 

 spikelike raceme from |- to f inch long in flower, and •;} to 1 inch long 

 in iVuit, the lower flower often separated by a short interval from the 

 others. Pedicels at first very short, but lengthening slightly in fruit, 

 though never as long as the capsule. Bracts scarious, 3-lobed; the 

 middle lobe triangular; the lateral lobes blunt, often truncate or 

 notched. Perianth segments about j\ inch long, somewhat spreading 

 in flower, connivent in fruit. Capsule about the size of white mustard 

 seed or a little larger, subglobular, 3-lobed, longer than the perianth 

 segments, splitting at the septa into 3 valves, each one tipped by one 

 of the short recurved styles. Seeds very minute, brown, rough, 

 slightly shining, oval-oblong, half-ovoid-trigonous. 



Reichenbach figures and Mr. Bentham describes what I have never 

 seen in the British plant, a 2- or 3-lobed bracteole idthin the bract at 

 the base of the pedicel. In all the very numerous specimens I have 

 examined, the bracteoles are united to the sides of the bract, so that it 

 appears to be a 3-lobed bract at the point -where the pedicel joins the 

 racliis 



Scottish Asphodel. 



French, Tofieldie a, colleretie. German, Sumjrf Tofieldie. 



Tribe II.— COLCHICE^ 



Perianth leaves free, with veiy long claws, or with the claws 

 cohering into a very long tube. 



Rootstock an oblique-based corm, rarely a " bulb " (Endlicher). 



GENUS XIX.— C OLCHICUM. Toumef. 



Perianth coloured, funnelshaped, with a very long slender tube and 

 a 6-partite limb, withering. Stamens 6, inserted on the tube of the 

 perianth; anthers affixed by the back, versatile. Styles 3, filiform, 

 very long; stigmas slender. Capsule fusiform, 3-lobed, septicidally 

 3-valved. Seeds numerous, subglobose ; testa broA\ni, rugose. 



Herbs with oblique-based corms contained in brown or dark brown 

 coats. Flowers in most of the species appearing in autumn after the 

 leaves have decayed; the leaves produced at the close of winter, 

 and capsule coming above ground in the following spring. Flowers 

 lilac or pink varying to white, resembling m form those of a Crocus. 



This genus is so called on account of its being found in Colcliis, a country of Asia, 

 said to be full of poisons, and of this among the rest. 



