NAROISSAL PLANTS. : 301 
includes the Daffodil, the Belladonna and Guernsey Lily, the 
showy Brunsvigias and Blood-flowers (Hemanthus) of the 
Cape of Good Hope, and the American Aloe—all characterised 
by their six stamens, a brilliantly coloured flower, and inferior 
ovary. With all their beauty, however, there is no family of 
plants possessed of more noxious properties. The viscid gum 
drawn from the bulb of. Hemanthus toxicarius is used by the 
natives of South Africa to poison their arrow-heads. The common 
daffodil and snow-drop contain an acrid principle which renders 
them emetic. The flowers of Narcissus (pseudo-Narcissus) are 
not only emetic, but a dangerous poison. On the other hand, 
many of them possess fine medicinal properties, and from the 
succulent root of Alstremera palida fine arrow-root is prepared. 
Others of the tribe, as Bomarea salsilla, yield a substitute for 
sarsaparilla. The American Aloe (Agave Americana), which ac- 
cording to gardening fable only blooms once in a hundred years, 
forms an impenetrable fence with its hard spinous leaves, while 
its fibre forms excellent cordage after being steeped in water for 
Some time, and the succulent substance beat out of it... Ime 
Mexico, where the aloe is extensively cultivated, sap of an 
agreeable sourish taste is drawn from it by cutting out the inner 
leaves just before the flower-scape is ready to burst forth. This 
sap, when fermented, forms a vinous beverage, resembling cider, 
called “pulque,”’ while by distillation a very intoxicating liquor 
1s made from the pulque. This sap yields a very considerable 
Tevenue to the State. 
The Inmace# connect the Narcissals with the Plantains and 
Bananas, or Amomals; the chief external distinction between 
the two being a singular change in the development of the foliage. 
In the N. arcissals, and especially in the Iris and Gladioles, the 
leaves are long, slender, and sword-shaped, with the veins running 
™ parallel lines converging to the apex ; but in the Musacez and 
other Amomals, the veins run perpendicular to the midrib—a 
vergence which gives to the foliage a totally different character. — 
The Irids are herbaceous Endogens, in which the exterior 
*nvelope of the flower or the calyx is composed of three stamens, 
Dhow the anthers turned outward, and opposite to them three 
Nhly-coloured sepals, recurving outwardly, as shown in Fig. 356, — 
