454 , THE YAM FAMILY. 
I, TAMUS. TAMUS. 
A single or perhaps two species, distinguished as a genus in the Order 
by the fruit, which isa berry, not a dry capsule. 
1, ©. communis, Linn. (fig. 1026). Common Tamus, Black Bryony. 
—An elegant climber, twining to a considerable length over hedges and 
bushes, easily known-by its bright, shining, heart-shaped leaves, with a 
tapering point, and sometimes almost 3-lobed but otherwise entire. Flowers 
small, of a yellowish-green ; the males in slender racemes, often branched 
and longer than the leaves; the females in much shorter and closer racemes, 
Berries scarlet, often very numerous, 
In hedges, open woods, and bushy places, in west-central and southern 
Europe, extending eastward to the Caucasus, and northward to Belgium. 
Dispersed over nearly the whole of England, and common in some counties, 
but not found in Scotland, and in Ireland confined to the banks of Lough 
Gill, in Sligo, £7. spring and early summer. 
LXXXV. LILIACEZ,, THE LILY FAMILY. 
Perennial herbs, with a creeping, bulbous, or clustered root- 
stock, and either radical leaves and peduncles, or annual bien- 
nial, or, in a few exotic species, perennial, leafy flowering-stems. 
Flowers hermaphrodite or rarely unisexual, Perianth inferior, 
petal-like, with 6 divisions. Stamens 6. Ovary free, 3-celled, 
with several ovules or rarely only one ovule in each cell. Styles 
single, with an entire or 3-parted stigma. I ruit a capsule or 
berry. Ina very few cases the parts of the flower are reduced 
to 4, or increased to 8, 3 
A large Order, widely distributed over every part of the globe, and sup- 
plying several of the most gorgeous ornaments of our flower-gardens. It 
is easily distinguished from Alismacee by the carpels united into a single 
ovary and fruit, from Amaryllidee by the free or superior ovary, from 
Juncee by the petal-like, coloured perianth. It is usually divided into 
two or more Orders, variously circumscribed according as the character is 
taken from the foliage, the fruit, the seed, or the stock, none of which 
taken alone give a very natural demarcation. A more natural arrangement 
appears to be to preserve the whole as one large family, divided into 
several suborders, of which the five enumerated below are represented in 
Britain. | 
Stem leafy. 
Stem branching. Fruit a berry. 
Leaves short, subulate, and clustered. Flowersaxillary. 5. ASPARAGUS. 
Leaves ovate, stiff, and prickly. Flowers on the back of 
the leaves. ek ie ae a 
Stems simple. 
Fruit a berry. 
Leaves net-veined, ina single whorl of4orrarely5 . 1. PApis. 
Leaves parallel-veined, alternate or radical. 
Flowers axillary 4 A 4 ° 
Flowers in a terminal raceme. 
Perianth bell-shaped. Leavesradical . . . 38 CONVALLARIA. 
. 2 . 2 POLYGONATUM. 
