90 JOURNAL OF TEE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the petaloid monocotyledons. Salisbury subdivides AmaniUidaccce, as 

 we now understand them, into a number of orders, one of which, Amarylli- 

 de,(B* (p. 120), is distinguished from all the others by characters 

 of stamens and corolla, and, " what I deem most essential, in 

 the bulbiform fleshy seeds, hitherto accompanied with ;i, so' id 

 peduncle ; so that when w^e cannot obtain the former, a tolerably good 

 conjecture of their nature may be formed by the latter. These bulbi- 

 form seeds are often whitish or tinged with pink till exposed to the air, 

 when they gradually assume a green hue, sometimes so dark as to be 

 nearly black, but howsoever dark they may be always known by their 

 thick fleshy coat hitherto in Amaryllidem devoid of albumen ; if only a 

 few in each cell, they are generally large and irregularly shaped, not 

 imlike small Potatos." He criticises Ker's suggestion as to their being 

 an accidental and alternate mode of fructification, and says, " After a great 



Fig. 20. — Ammocharis falcafa, Herb, with a seed germinating; in the capsule, April 26, 

 1814 ; the capsule was ripe in October and had stood all winter. To the left a 

 germinating seed removed from the capsule. 



(From a drawing by E. A. Salisbury, in the Department of Botany, British 

 Museum). 



many enquiries of our nurserymen and gardeners, I do not hesitate to 

 reply, that all those species which have these bulbiform seeds never 

 produce any other sort ; neither are they peculiar to Amaryllidecs, 

 but occur in the preceding as well as the following orders of Pancratem 

 and StrumarecB ; here, however, they begin and ; terminate for aught I 

 know to the contrary." ''With respect to their structure," he says, 

 " many which I first dissected in 1790 at different periods of their growth, 

 from the distinct vessels near their margin left no doubt in my mind that 

 the great mass consisted of a thick fleshy coat." He also criticises 

 Brown's ^statement that in some cases the seed separates before the embryo 

 is formed ; " many observations, lately repeated out of deference to his 



* Comprises Crinum, Ammocharis, BiipJiane, Amaryllis, Brunftvigia, NerinCy 

 Lycoris, Hessea and Carpolyza. 



