PRELIMINARY TREATISE. 
15 
if Dr. Lindley’s definition of a berry is correct, that it is “ a 
succulent fruit, the seeds of which lose their adhesion when 
ripe and lie loose in a pulp;” and as a berry is usually such, 
and cannot be two different things, I am satisfied that this 
definition is true. That which Dr. Brown calls a berry in 
Tamus, has never been properly described. It has a thin 
(and usually bright coloured) outer skin; a soft juicy pulp 
between it and the inner coat, which is a three-valved 
dehiscent capsule, bearing the dissepiments on the valves, 
the seeds lying in three distinct cells. This remarkable fruit 
shews the futility of separating the berry-like pericarp of 
some plants in the cognate orders, from the valved capsule. 
9. Seeds with a shell neither black nor crustaceous is entirely 
without foundation, and applies to only a small portion of 
the order. 10. Embryo straight, with the radicle pointing to 
the umbilicus seems to me incorrect. The radicle properly 
points to the foramen; but I have seen the embryo in 
Crinum at an early period very curved, and its ultimate 
direction is quite vague. Neither in Crinum nor in Hyme- 
nocallis does it usually issue near the umbilicus. There is 
not in truth a single point that I can ascertain to separate 
Amaryllidacese from Hemerocallideae, but the germen inferior 
to the perianth and stamens in the former, and superior in 
the latter. There is no true separation made between Aspho- 
deleae and Hemerocallideae. Dr. Brown’s distinction of the 
latter by seeds neither black nor crustaceous, and the former 
by seeds with a shell black fragile and crustaceous, is cer- 
tainly inaccurate, the seed of Hemerocallis itself being 
black and fragile, and that of Albuca amongst Asphodeleae 
soft and foliaceous. There is not in the given character of 
Dioscoreae a single true point to separate it from Amaryllideae 
except being dioecious, which is not even a sure generic 
distinction, as may be exemplified by Vitis. Tameae are 
separated by nothing but a supposed berry (which in fact is 
not a berry) instead of a capsule, a variation which occurs 
elsewhere both in Amaryllideae and Asphodeleae, and is 
therefore no distinctive mark of an order. If any separation 
of Tamus and Dioscoreae can be founded on the veins, it is 
unnoticed by Dr. Brown. Smilaceae are admitted to differ, 
from the portion of Asphodeleae which have berry-like fruit, 
in little but the integuments of the seeds, and in the style 
being often trifid: if the style is not always trifid, its being 
so sometimes is no distinction, and the closely allied genera 
