454 
LI LI ACE AE 
of flowering plants; 200 gen. with 2500 sp., cosmop. The smaller 
groups are often confined to definite floral regions. Most are herbs 
with sympodial rhizomes or bulbs; a few trop. and warm temp, forms, 
e.g. Yucca, Dracaena, &c., are shrubs or trees, often with an unusual 
mode of growth in thickness. Many are xerophytes; some, e.g . Aloe 
and Gasteria, are succulent ; others, e.g. Phormium, have hard iso- 
bilateral leaves ; others, e.g. Dasylirion, have tuberous stems and 
narrow leaves ; Bowiea only produces leafy shoots in the wet season. 
Smilax, Gloriosa, &c., are climbing plants, the former with peculiar 
stipular tendrils. Ruscus exhibits phylloclades. 
Infl. most commonly racemose; firs, with no bracteoles ; when the 
latter occur, the further branching from their axils usually takes a 
cymose form, especially that of a bostryx (p. 65), as in Hemerocallis. 
The apparent umbels or heads of Allium, Agapanthus, &c. are really 
cymose (p. 65). Solitary terminal firs, occur in tulip, &e. Firs, 
usually $ , regular, pentacyclic, 3-merous (rarely 2, 4, or 5), hypo- 
gynous. P 3 + 3, free or united, petaloid or sometimes sepaloid ; 
A 3 + 3 or fewer, rarely more, usually 
with introrse anthers ; G (3) usually 
superior, rarely inferior or semi-inferior, 
3-loc. with axile, or rarely i-loc. with 
parietal placentae ; ovules usually 00 , 
in two rows in each loc., anatropous. 
Fruit usually capsular, loculicidal or 
septicidal, sometimes a berry. Seed 
with straight or curved embryo, in 
abundant fleshy or cartilaginous, never 
floury, endosperm. 
Firs. usually insect-pollinated. 
Honey in Scilla, Allium, &c., is se- 
creted by glands in the ovary-wall 
between the cpls. ; in other cases by 
glands on the bases of the perianth- 
leaves (see Muller’s Fert. of Firs, and 
Alpenblumen). Yucca (q.v.) has a 
unique pollination-method. 
Economically the L. are of no great value. The chief food plants 
are Allium and Asparagus; Phormium, Yucca, and Sansevieria yield 
useful fibre; Smilax, Urginea, Aloe, Colchicum, Veratrum, &c., are 
medicinal. Xanthorrhoea and Dracaena yield resins; Chlorogalum 
is used as soap. Many are favourite garden and greenhouse plants, 
e.g. Convallaria, Tulipa, Fritillaria, Lilium, Agapanthus, Kniphofia, 
Funkia, Hyacinthus, Gloriosa, and many more. 
Classification and chief genera (after Engler) : the L. are closely 
allied to Juncaceae ; usually they can be distinguished by their peta- 
loid perianth, but many L. have a sepaloid perianth, e.g. Xanthor- 
o 
Diagram of Convallaria 
(after Eichler). 
