850 



THE LILY FAMILY. 



Fig. 1021. 



2 or 3 together in the axils of the 

 principal branches, many of them 

 ^A itli stamens only. Berries small, 

 red, and globular. 



In maritime sands, or in sandy 

 plains, in central and western Asia, 

 all round the Mediterranean, and up 

 the western coasts of Europe to the 

 English Channel. In Britain, con- 

 fined to the western and south-western 

 shores of England, and the coast of 

 Wexford and Water ford in Ireland. 

 Fl. summer. The cultivated Aspara- 

 gus of our gardens belongs to the 

 same species. 



VI. RUSCUS. KUSCUS. 



Shrub-like herbs, with a perennial rootstock, hard, green, branching 

 stems, and alternate, stiff, evergreen, parallel-veined leaves (theoreti- 

 cally shown to be short leaf-like branches), with minute, often micro- 

 scopical scales (the real leaves) underneath them. Flowers small, 

 mostly unisexual, apparently sessile on the middle of the leaf. Perianth 

 of 6 distinct segments. Stamens united in a tube, with 3 or 6 anthers. 

 Ovary 3-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell. Style simple, with an un- 

 divided stigma. Fruit a berry. 



A small European and North African genus, easily known among 

 European Monocotyledons by its stiff, shrub-like habit. 



1. Common Ruscus. Ruscus aculeatus, Linn. (Fig. 1022.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 560. Butcher s Broom.) 



A rigid, dark green, much-branched plant, 2 to 3 feet high ; the 

 stems said to be biennial, although apparently shrubby. Leaves nu- 

 merous, ovate, all terminating in a prickly point. Flowers small and 

 white, apparently sessile in the middle of what is realty the upper sur- 

 face of the leaf, though it is usually turned downwards by a twist of 

 the leaf at its base ; and a close examination will show that the flower 

 is in fact borne on a pedicel arising from the axil of the leaf and closely 



