1622 CXXXV. LILIACE^. [Rhipogonum.. 



oblong. Anthers long, on short filaments as in li. album, but the ovary very 

 densely villous, contracted into a very short thick style, with closely adnata 

 recuived stigmatic lobes. Ovules and fruit of R. albttm. 

 Hab.: In many of the southern gcrubs. 



3. ASPARAGUS, Linn. 



(Referring to the tearing prickles with which some species are armed.) 

 (Asparagopsis, Kunth.) 

 Flowers hermaphrodite polygamous or unisexual. Perianth deciduous, of &■ 

 distinct nearly equal spreading 1-nerved segments. Stamens 6, attached to the- 

 base of the segments ; filaments filiform or flattened ; anthers viersatile, usually 

 short, the cells opening in longitudinal slits. Ovary sessile, short, 8-celled 

 with 2 or very few ovules in each cell ; style simple, with a short 3-lobed stigma- 

 Fruit a globular indehiscent berry. Seeds usually reduced to a single one, 

 with a black shining testa ; albumen hard ; embryo transverse. — Stems herba- 

 ceous, from a creeping rhizome, or shrubby much-branched and spreading or 

 climbing to a considerable height, often armed with prickles under the branches. 

 Cladodes (formerly called leaves, but now theoretically believed to be abortive 

 branches) usually clustered, subulate, angular or laterally flattened, surrounded 

 by small scarious scales representing the real leaves. Flowers small, solitary or 

 2 together in the axils of the scale-like real leaves, or by the reduction of flowering 

 branches without cladodes forming short axillary racemes. 



Avery)arj.e genus, widely spread over the warmer and temperate regions of the Old World.. 

 The only Australian species extends also over tropical and subtropical Asia and Africa. 



1. A. racemosus (flowers in racemes) Wilkl. ; Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. 

 xiv. 623 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 17. A slender but rigid much-branchedi 

 straggling shrub, often climbing to a considerable height, armed with recurved 

 priclfles under the branches. Cladodes usually in clusters of 3 to 6, but 

 sometimes solitary, very slender, slightly curved or rarely quite straight, flat or 

 3-angled, but always very narrow or subulate, very acute, mostly f to nearly 

 l^in. long. Flowers mostly hermaphrodite, in racemes of 1 to 2in., the pedicels- 

 scattered singly or 2 together along the rhachis, and usually about 2 lines long. 

 Perianth-segments nearly \\ line long. Stamens nearly as long as the perianth,, 

 the filaments slightly flattened ; anthers small. Style short, with a spreading 

 8-lobed stigma. Berries small. — A. fasciculatiis, R. Br. Prod. 281 ; F. v. M- 

 Fragm. vii. 73 ; Asparagopsis fioribunda, A. Brmmiei, and /4. Decaisnei, Kunth^ 

 Enum. V. 98, 103, and numerous other synonyms quoted by Baker. 



Hab.: Islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, R. Brown; Cape Yori, Daemel; Cape Sidmouth,. 

 G. Moore ; and other northern localities. 



4. EUSTREPHUS, R. Br. 



(Referring to the twining habit of plants.) 



Perianth deciduous, of 6 distinct oblong segments, nearly equal in length,, 

 the 3 outer rather firmer, valvate in the bud, and shortly hoodshaped at the- 

 apex ; the 3 inner flat, obtuse, with thin more or less fringed- margins. 

 Stamens 6, hypogynous, not exceeding the perianth ; filaments flat, erect, and 

 often cohering in a tube ; anthers oblong, erect, the cells opening in longitudinal 

 slits. Ovary sessile, thort, 3-celled, with several ovules in each cell ; style 

 filiform, with a terminal undivided stigma. Fruit nearly globular, 3-celled,. 

 with little or no pulp, the pericarp succulent, but at length dry, and often 

 opening loculicidally in 3 valves. Seeds irregularly shaped, with a black thickly 

 membranous testa, hard albumen, and small embryo. — A glabrous, much- 

 branched leafy cUmber. Flowers small, few together, pedicellate in the upper- 

 axils. 



'Xhe genus is limited to S single 



