II AMARYLLIDACE^ — DIOSCOREACE^ — LILIACEiE 417 



parts of the perianth-leaves, and this has been confirmed 

 by Delpino and Knuth. It is not, however, abundant. 

 The flowers are principally visited by hive bees. They 

 are pendulous ; the anthers form a cone, and terminate 

 in rigid points, which can hardly fail to be touched by 

 the bee, which thus shakes the stamens so that some of 

 the pollen drops down. In the absence of insect visits 

 the filaments relax, the anthers separate, and some of 

 the pollen drops on the viscid stigma. 



DIOSCOEEACE^ 



Climbing plants, with net-veined leaves. Flowers 

 on the same plan as in Amaryllidaceae. Fruit, a berry 

 in the British genus. 



Tamus 



T. communis (Black Bryony). — The plant is dioecious ; 

 the flowers are small, yellowish-green, in slender racemes. 

 The berries are scarlet. Darwin found that the growing 

 shoot revolves or circumnutates in 2^ to 3 hours.-' 



LILIACEiE 



Plants of various habit, often growing from a bulb 

 or rhizome. Perianth 6-leaved, petaloid; stamens 6, 

 below the ovary. 



Some produce nectar, others are visited for the 

 pollen only. Some (Paris) appear to attract flies by mock 

 nectar. In several genera (Fritillaria, Allium, Gagea, 

 Ornithogalum, and Hyacinthus), the leaves sometimes 

 produce buds. Some 2500 species are known. 



' Darwin, Climbing Plants, p. 25. 



2 E 



