842 



THE LILY FAMILY. 



Fig. 1014. 



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. Ber- 

 ries scarlet, often very numerous. 



In hedges, open woods, and bushy 

 places, in west central and southern 

 Europe, extending eastward to the 

 Caucasus, and northward only into 

 southern and western Germany. Dis- 

 persed over nearly the whole of England, 

 and common in some counties, but not 

 found in Scotland or Ireland. Fl. spring 

 and early summer* 





LXXXIV. THE LILY FAMILY. LILIACE2R. 



Perennial herbs, with a creeping, bulbous, or clustered root- 

 stock, and either radical leaves and peduncles, or annual, biennial, 

 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. Style 

 single, with an entire or 3-parted stigma. Fruit a capsule or 

 berry. In a very few cases the parts of the flower are reduced to 

 4, or increased to 8. 



A large Order, widely distributed over every part of the globe, and 

 supplying several of the most gorgeous ornaments of our flower-gardens. 

 It is easily distinguished from the Alisma family by the carpels united 

 into a single ovary and fruit, from the Amaryllis family by the free 

 or superior ovary, from the Hush family by the petal-like, coloured 

 perianth. It is usually divided into two or more Orders, variously cir- 

 cumscribed 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 



