LILTACEJi:. 521 



3 ovules iu each cell. Styles or stigmas 3. Seeds with a mi- 

 nute embryo in a hard albumen. 



An Order consisting of but very few genera, but witli a considerable 

 number of species, dispersed over the warmer regions of the globe. Tliey 

 include the cultivated Yams, and several Soutli African and Mexican 

 plants introduced into our greenliouses as curiosities on account of their 

 massive woody rootstocks, contrasted with the slender, climbing, annual 

 stems. 



I. TAMUS. TAMUS. 



A single or perhaps tvfo species, distinguished as a genus in the Ordci" by 

 the fruit, which is a berry, not a dry capsule. 



1. Cotuiucn Tamus. Tamxis communis, Liuu. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 91. Blixck Bryony.) 



An elegant climber, twining to a considerable length over hedges and 

 bushes, easily known by its bright, shining, heart-shaped leaves, with a 

 tapering point, and sometimes almost 3-lobed but otherwise entire. Flowers 

 small, of a yellowish-green ; the males in slender i-acemes, often branched 

 and longer than the leaves ; the females in much shorter and closer racemes. 

 Berries scarlet, often very numerous. 



In hedges, open woods, and bushy places, in west-central and southern 

 Europe, extending eastward to the Caucasus, and northward only into 

 southern and western Grermany. Dispersed over nearly the whole of Eng- 

 land, and common in some counties, but not found in Scotland or Ireland. 

 Fl. spring and early summer. 



LXXXIV. THE LILY FAMILY. LILIACE^. 



Perennial herbs, with a creeping, bulbous, or clustered root- 

 stock, and either radical leaves and peduncles, or annual, bi- 

 ennial, or, in a few exotic species, perennial, leafy flowerini,^- 

 stems. Flowers hermaphrodite or rarely unisexual. Periantli 

 inferior, petal-like, with 6 divisions. Stamens 6. Ovary free, 

 3-eelled, with several ovules or rarelj' only one ovule in eacli 

 cell. Style single, with an entire or 3-parted stigma. Fruit 

 a capsule or berry. In a very few cases the parts of the 

 flower are reduced to 4, or increased to 8. 



A large Order, widely distributed over every part of the globe, and sup- 

 plying several of the most gorgeous ornaments of our flower-gardens. It 

 is easUy distinguished from tlie AUsma family by the carpels united into a 

 single ovary and fruit, from the Amaryllis family by the free or superior 

 ovary, from the Rush fiimily by the petal-like, colom-ed perianth. It is 

 usually divided into two or more Orders, variously circumscribed according as 

 the character is taken from the foliage, the fruit, the seed, or the stock, none 

 of wliich taken alone give a very natural demarcation. A more natural ar- 

 rangement appears to be \o preserve the whole as one large family, divide^l 



3 y3 



