349 
midst of fleshy albumen. — Small herbaceous plants, with tunicated bulbs. Leaves grass- 
like. Flowers umbellate, somewhat spathaceous, inconspicuous. 
Affinities. The distinctions of many of the natural orders among hex- 
apetaloideous Dicotyledons are so slight, as far as technical characters are 
capable of being employed, that the separation of this tribe from Asphodeleae 
seems justifiable, even now that the structure of the seeds is known, and that 
they are found to be essentially those of Asphodeleae, except in having a crus- 
taceous neck that connects them with the placenta. The tribe was originally 
proposed in the Botanical Register, from which, as that work is in few hands, 
I make the following rather long extract. 
“ The whole structure of this most remarkable plant is so pecuhar, that 
we scarcely know whether the definition and description of the parts of fructi- 
fication above given will not be considered more paradoxical than just ; and 
yet, if the analogies the various organs bear to those of other plants be care- 
fully considered, their structure will scarcely admit of any other interpretation. 
With respect to the five petaloid leaves, which are here described as bracteee, 
and which bear a considerable degree of resemblance to a perianthium, it may 
be observed, that this appearance is more apparent than real ; they neither 
correspond in insertion nor in number with the segments of a monocotyledo- 
nous perianthium, nor do they bear the same relation to the parts contained 
as a perianthium should bear. The three outer are not inserted on the same 
line, but are distinctly imbricated at the base ; and the two inner do not com- 
plete the second series, as would be required in a regular monocotyledonous 
perianthium. 
“ But if we were to admit, for a moment, the possibility of these bracteas 
being segments of a perianthium, what explanation could be given of the 
setiform processes proceeding from their base, or of the central fleshy slipper- 
, like body from within which the stamens proceed } The former bear no 
j determinate relation to the other parts of the flower in their insertion ; they 
are subject to much diversity of form and number, being sometimes eight, 
I consisting of two unequal subulate bodies proceeding from the edges of each 
lateral segment, the outermost of the two being wider than the innermost, 
I and being, moreover, not unfrequently a manifest process of the margin of the 
\ segment itself ; sometimes having their number reduced to four by the sup- 
1 pression of the exterior processes of each lateral segment ; and occasionally 
having the outer processes suppressed on one segment, and not suppressed on 
the other. In the many flowers which have been under examination, the pro- 
cesses, moreover, were always constituted of cellular tissue alone, without 
either tracheae or tubular vessels. These circumstances being considered, it 
wUl scarcely be proposed, we presume, to identify them with abortive stamina. 
If they are, notwithstanding what has been advanced, determined to be the 
perianthium itself, what becomes of the outer segments, which had previouslv 
been referred to perianthium } for it would be difficult to trace any analogy 
between the structure of Gdliesia and of those genera in which a third series 
is added to the usual senary division of Monocotyledones. But none of the 
peculiarities adverted to are opposed to those bodies being referred to depau- 
perated or reduced bracteaj. 
“ With respect to the central body from which the stamens proceed, this 
body, which might be conveniently disposed of by referring it to what Lin- 
naean botanists call a nectarium, consists, as we have seen, of a fleshy slipper- 
like lobe, with or without two auricles at the base, and within which the cup 
of stamens is inserted. The relation it bears, as regards insertion, to the 
parts which have been already noticed, is very obscure ; it is always opposite 
the solitary external bracteae ; but whether it is anterior with re.«r>ect to the 
