THE AMARYLLIS OR NARCISSUS 
FAMILY 
[ORDER LXXXI. AMARYLLIDACEyE] 
HE Narcissus Family has many characteristics of both the Iris and Lily tribes, but is easily 
recognised from the former by having 6 stamens and from the latter by the perianth-tube 
being united with the seedcase. Only three genera are represented in the British Isles. 
It is a large and beautiful order of bulbous plants, widely distributed over the world, but it 
thrives best in hot sunny dry countries, and produces wonderful flowers in Cape Colony, Brazil, 
and the East and West Indies. 
Many species are cultivated in greenhouses and gardens. The Scarlet Amaryllis grown in 
greenhouses is a common favourite, also the Belladonna Lily (Amaryllis Belladonna) of Cape 
Colony, the golden Sternbergia, the deep red Nerines with among them the Guernsey Lily 
(Nerine sarniensis), the white and crimson Crinums, and the sharp-leaved Alstromeria from 
Chili. Various species of Narcissus, which we know as Daffodils, Narcissus, and Jonquils, are 
cultivated in gardens. The parent species of Narcissi from which varieties are obtained are natives 
of southern Europe and Asia. Snowdrops are common in every garden. 
The Century plant (Agave americana) of Mexico, often but erroneously called Aloe, produces 
one of the largest clusters of flowers known in the vegetable world. It is a strange plant with a 
rosette of stiff spiny leaves and a short stumpy stem. For 20 or 30 years, or as some say 100, the 
plant remains in much the same condition. Then a long thick stem, 10-20 feet high, arises from 
the centre of the rosette of leaves, which terminates in a huge flower-cluster bearing thousands of 
greenish flowers, which secrete so much honey that it drips on to the ground below. As soon as 
the fruits have ripened and the seeds dispersed the stem and leaves die away. In Mexico this 
plant is largely cultivated for the sake of the juice secreted in the flowering stem, which is 
converted into a sparkling fermented drink called pulque, and also for its leaves which yield a 
fibre useful for making paper and cord. Other species of the same genus — Agave vivipara and 
Agave sisalana — also yield valuable fibres. 
I. Daffodil (Narcis'sus). Perianth of 6 nearly equal lobes, and a long tube, which is prolonged 
into a trumpet- or cup-shaped crown. 
II. Snowdrop (Galan'thus). Perianth of 6 lobes, 3 outer twice as long and more spreading 
than the 3 inner ; anthers opening by pores at the tip. 
III. Snowflake (Leucojum). Perianth of 6 nearly equal lobes ; anthers opening by 
slits. 
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