55 
Saprophytic Monocotyledon . 
makes it certain that the plant is a Monocotyledon. Septal 
glands are not present in the flowers of all the genera in the 
families mentioned ; as far as observation has gone they are 
notably absent from those Liliaceae which have three styles 
or a branched style (Melanthaceae). So the apocarpous 
condition of the upper portion of the pistil of Protolirion may 
be a partial reversion from syncarpy to apocarpy, associated 
with the peculiar habit of the plant (cp. modified flowers of 
parasites amongst Dicotyledons). 
Affinities of Protolirion. It is difficult to decide where to 
place this simple form. On the one hand its incipient 
gynandry may be but an unimportant and casual factor, 
which will be found to recur in some other forms which have 
a half-inferior ovary. Yet it may be of deeper significance in 
suggesting that the Orchidaceae are more closely allied to 
plants with a superior ovary than to forms with an inferior 
ovary — in particular that they were derived rather from the 
Liliaceae than from the Amaryllidaceae. In habit, structure 
of the seed (no doubt partially the effect of its saprophytism), 
and in the partially apocarpous condition of its pistil, Proto- 
lirion vividly recalls the Triuridaceae. The latter have 
diclinous flowers, and indefinite one-ovulate separate carpels : 
but though diclinous, rudiments of the gynaeceum and the 
stamens are frequently present in the male and female 
flowers respectively. And dicliny appears in the Liliaceae, 
particularly in the Veratreae, some of which are poly- 
gamous. So no great stress can be laid on this difference. 
The distinction as regards number of carpels, their structure 
and ovulation, finds analogies in Ranunculaceae and Nym- 
pheaceae : and the semi-adnation is repeated in syncarpous 
Veratreae. 
But the flowers, fruits, and seeds of Protolirion taken 
together resemble those of the Veratreae, and particularly the 
Tofieldieae, more than they do those of any other plants. 
So Protolirion may be regarded as closely related to 
the archetype of the Liliaceae, and connecting the modern 
Liliaceae with the Triuridaceae. The transition between 
