LILIACEOUS PLANTS. 63 



because it merges gradually into the scape, which bears 

 the flower, and the petioles of the leav.es, which sheathe- 

 the scape. The swollen mass is called a Jmlb. ' 



83. The leaves are two in number, gradually narrowing 

 at the base into sheaths. If you hold one of them up to 

 the light, you will observe that the veins do not, as in the 

 leaves of the Dicotyledonous plants, form a network, but 

 run only in one direction : namely, from 

 end to end of the leaves. Such leaves are 

 consequently called straight-veined. 



84. In the flower there is no appearance 

 of a green calyx. 'There are six yellow 

 Fig. 83. ^ leaves, nearly alike, arranged iij two sets, 

 an outer and an inner, of three each. . In such cases, we 

 shall speak of the coloured leaves collectively as the pm- 

 anth. If the leaves are free from each other we shall 

 speak of the perianth as polyphijllous, but if they cohere 

 we shall describe it as gamophyllous. Stripping off the 

 leaves of the perianth, we find six stamens with long 

 upriglit anthers which open along their outer edgea. If 

 the anthers be pulled off, the filaments will be found to 

 terminate in long, sharp points. 



The pistil (Fig. 83) has its ihree parts— 

 lf)vary, style, and stigma — well marked. The 

 stigma -is evidently formed by the union of 

 three into one. The ovary, when cut across, 

 is seen to be three-celled (Fig. 84), and is. Fig. 84. 

 therefore, syncarpous. 



Fig. 83.— Pistil of Dog's-toobli Violet. 

 Fig- 84.— Cro99 scctign of the pistil, 



