LILY FAMILY. 339 



IV. ASPARAGUS FAMILY; with parallel-veined mostly 

 alternate leaves, branching or simple stems from a rootstock, at 

 least there is no bulb, a single style (if cleft or lobed at all only at 

 (he summit), and fruit a few several-seeded berry. Pedicels very 

 often with a joint in the middle or under the flower. Flower 

 almost always small, and white or greenish, chiefly perfect. 



§ 1. Serbs wUh ordinary broad leaves, 



# Flowers bell-shaped, ofQ separate avd simil&r deciduous divisions; stamens on (he 

 receptacle or nearly so : antlters turned outwards. 



13. CLINTOMA. Flowers erect, few or several in an umbel on a naked scape, 



the base of which is sheathed by the stalks of a few large oval or oblong and 

 clliate root-leaves. Filaments long and slender; anthers linear or oblong; 

 style long. Ovaiy 2-»3-celled, becoming a blue berry. Rootstocks creeping, 

 like those of LiIy<if-the-VaIley, which tne leaves also resemble. 



14. PROSARTES. Mowers single or few, hanging at the end of the leafy spreading 



branches on slender simple stalks, yellowish. Divisions of the perianth 

 lanceolate or linear. Filaments much longer than the linear-oblong blunt 

 antliers. Ovary with a pair of hanging ovules in each of the 3 cells, becom- 

 ing an ovoid or oblong and pointed red berry. Rootstock short, not creep- 

 ing: herbage cRwny. 



15. STEEPTOPlfS. Flowers single or rarely in pairs along the leafy and forking 



stem, just out of the axils of the ovate claspmg leaves : the slender peduncle 

 usually bent in the middle. Divisions of the perianth lanceolate, acute, the 

 three inner ones keeled. Anthers arrow-shaped, on short and flattish fila- 

 ments. Ovaiy 3-oelled, making a red many-seeded berry. 



« # Flowers with perianOi of one piece, but often deeply parted, the stamens on its 

 , base or tube : anthers turned inwards : stems not branched. 



16. CONVALLAEIA. Flowers nodding in a one-sided raceme, on an angled scape 



which rises, with the about two objong leaves, from a running rootstock. 

 Perianth short bell-shaped, with 6 recurving lobes. Stamens included. 

 Style stout. Ovary with, several ovules, becommg a few-seeded red berry. 



17. SMILACINA. Flowers in a raceme or cluster of racemes terminating a leaf- 



bearing stem, small, white. Perianth 6-parted, in one 4-parted. Fuaments 

 slender : anthers short. Ovary 2 - 3-celled, making a 1 - 2-seeded berry. Root- 

 stocks mostly creeping. 



18. POLYGONATUM. Flowers nodding in the axils of the leaves along a leafy 



and recurving simple stem, which rises from a long and thickened rootstock. 

 Perianth greenish, cylindrical, 6-lobed or 6-toothed, bearing the 6 included 

 stamens at or above the middle of the tube. Style slender. Ovary S-celled 

 ■with few ovules in each cell, in fruit becoming a globular black or blue few- 

 seeded berry. 

 , §2. Plants with small scales in ploice of leaves, from (he axils of which are produced 

 false-leaves, i. e. bodies which by their position are seen to be of the nature^ of 

 branches, but which imitate and act as leaves. Perianth greenish or whitish, 

 ^-parted, the stamens borne on its base. Berry 3-celled, the cells i-seeded.. 



19. ASPARAGUS. Flowers greenish-yellow, bell-shaped, scattered along the much 



divided branches. Styles short.:, stigma 3-lobed. Th^ so-called leaves very 

 narrow. 



20. MYRSIPHYLLUM. Flowers 2 or 3 in the axils, greenish-white ; the lineal^ 



oblong divisions of the perianth recurved. Stamens almost as- long as the 

 jjerianth. Style slender: stigma entire. The so-caUed leaves lance-ovate. 

 Stems twining. 



"V. LILY FAMILY fropeb (including Asphodel Family) : dis- 

 tinguished by the single undivided style (or rarely a sessile stigma), 

 and fruit a loculicidal pod. Perianth with all 6 parts generally 

 corolla-like, and in all the following nearly similar. Leaves par- 

 allel-veined or ribbed, sometimes with netted-veins also. Stem or 

 scape mostly simple. 



