342 Dr Yule on the Phormium ienax , 
to determine, to a certain extent, the respective affinity of the 
subordinate tribes of the great natural orders of plants. The 
Asphodelese, as at present considered, will soon, one may ven- 
ture to foretell, be still further subdivided, as they have been 
already, and with reason, separated from the real Liliaceae : 
for, notwithstanding the external resemblance of the peri- 
anth and the general aspect of the spike, and parts of fructi- 
fication, Hyacinthus and Phormium are widely distinguished by 
nature. This difference is particularly manifested in the struc- 
ture and manner of evolving their respective germs. In Phor- 
mium, the primary or sheathing leafet, shooting from the part 
termed by some physiologists the body of the embryo, and by 
others confounded with the radicle *, envelopes the successive 
leafets which shoot alternately from the edge of their prede- 
cessors, towards their base, and which they gradually, as it 
were, cut open as they advance in growth ; and at length, what 
was originally the inside, becomes the disc of the leaf. In this 
singular manner of germinating, they resemble, superficially 
only, the Haemodoracese and Irideae, which are in other res- 
pects totally distinct. To Dianella, however, Phormium is more 
nearly allied, notwithstanding this last produces a berry instead 
of a rigid capsule like Phormium. 
The Phormiaceae, then, although allied to certain European 
Asphodelese, form a detached link of the chain; and Mr Brown is 
the only botanist from whom we are likely to obtain satisfactory 
information with respect to the intermediate genera, connecting 
these with Stipandra and Dianella. It is remarkable, that these 
genera should so closely resemble each other in the strength 
of the fibres, as well as in the germination of their rigid leaves. 
But the Dianellse are comparatively diminutive plants, and ap- 
pear to possess little value, either in an ornamental or in an 
economical point of view. 
The following results, established by MM. Thouin and La 
Billardiere, manifest the comparative superiority in strength of 
* La Tigelle (Cauliculus), M. Richard observes, “ se confond du’ne part avec 
la radicule, don’t elle n’est qu’une prolongement.”— *Vid. Analyse du Fruit , p. 49. 
&c. I shall in a future paper, with due regard to the memory of this very respec- 
table naturalist, (who lately died at Paris), endeavour to point out the inaccuracy 
of this definition. 
