PLANT FAMILIES: LILIACEjE. 



253 



The smaller plants have no flower and but one leaf, while the 

 bulb is nearer the 

 surface. Each year 

 new bulbs are form- 

 ed at the end of run- 

 ners from a parent 

 bulb. These run- 

 ners penetrate each 

 year deeper in the 

 soil. The deeper 

 bulbs bear the flow- 

 er stems. 



490. Genus lili- 

 um. — While the lily 

 differs from either 

 the trillium or ery- 

 thronium, yet we 

 recognize a rela- 

 tionship when we 

 compare the peri- 

 anth of six colored 

 parts, the 6 stamens, 

 and the 3-sided and F"g- 3^5- 



Adder-tongue (erythronium). At left below pistil, and three 

 long 3 - lOCUled stamens opposite three parts of the perianth. Bulb at the 



right, 

 ovary. 



491. Family liliaceae. — The relationship between genera, as 

 between trillium, erythronium, and lilium, brings us to a still 

 higher order of relationship \\-here the limits are broader than in 

 the genus. Genera which are thus related make up \!ai family. 

 In the case of these genera the family has been named after the 

 lily, and is the lily family, or LiliacecB. This grouping of plants 

 into species, genera, families, etc., according to characters and 

 relationships is classification, or taxonomy. 



The lily family is a large one. Another example is found in 

 the " Solomon' s-seal," with its elongated, perennial root-stock, 

 the scars formed by the falling away of each annual shoot resem- 



