300 



by a short thread, anatropal : styline column terminal, elongated, 

 erect, stigma truncated obtuse, undivided, papiHoae ; berry tri- 

 coccous, many-seeded ; seeds almost oval, lenticular compressed, 

 hilum naked : testa crustaceous,. black, shining, fragile : internal 

 membrane very thin, adhering to fleshy albumen : ehalaza clear, 

 orbicular : embryo axile, very small, radicle looking towards the 

 hilum. — Cffispitose plants, caulescent or stemless, sometimes suffruti- 

 cose : leaves linear-grass-like, often denticulate at the back and 

 margin, sheathing at the base : panicles terminal, solitary, simple or 

 branched, bracteate : flowers pedicelled, usually blue, pedicels . 

 drooping, articulated beneath the perianth : bracteoles lateral, more 

 or less leDMte feom the pedicel ; anthers very often yellow : berries 

 blue, 



(1) D. EirsiTDiiA. f Alton. J 



Iclenf. Ait. Kew (ed. 2), II. 276.— Kunth Enum. pi. v. p. 50. 



S'^n. D. nemorosa, Jaeq. Sehaenlr. I, 49, — Roxh. flor. Ind. II. 

 161. — ^Dracaena ensifoUa, Ait. I. e. I. 454. 



Mn%rM. "Wight's Icon. t. 2053. — Eed. Lil, t. 1. — Jacq. 1. c. t. 

 94. 



Spec, Ckae. Leaves numerous, long, ensiform : margin prickly, 

 serrulate : keel rough at the base and apex : braaiehes and branch- 

 lets of the panicle spreading : pedicels crowded, drooping, nearly as. 

 long as the flower. 



CourtaUum. Malabar mountains. 



GEKUS XIII. ASPAEAGOPSIS. 



Hexandria mtono^ynia. Sex: Systs 



Derw. Plants having the appearance of Asparagus. 



Gen. CKiE. Elowers hermaphrodite : perianth coroUaceons, 

 deeply 6-parted, persistent, leaflets equal, campanulately connivent : 

 stamens 6, inserted at the base of the leaflets, filaments subulate- 

 filiform or linear, anthers 2-celled, emarginate, fixed at the back 

 above the cordately 2-lobed base, introrse, erect : ovary free, 3-ceUed, 

 ovules 3 — 9 m each cell, fixed to a central axis, in two rows, 

 anatropal : styline column terminal, deciduous, stigma 3-cleft, 

 segments recurved : berry globose, by abortion 1 — 2-seeded : seeds 

 sub-globose : testa thin, black : albumen homy-cartilaginous : em- 

 bryo transverse to the hihim : radicle remote. — Herbs or under- 

 shrubs, branched : leaves scattered, scaliform, often produced at the 

 base into a divaricate spine, surrounding either barren or fertile 

 peduncles or both, the barren ones sharpened, capOlaceous, filiform, 

 linear, or subulate, angled, the fertile ones solitary in the fasicles of 

 the barren ones, or twin or more, 1 -flowered, bracteolate at the base, 

 nodosely pointed below the apex or at the middle, sometimes race- 

 mosely arranged in the bracteolated branchlets. 



