LILIACE-ffi. 
377 
7. DIANELLA, Lam. 
Perianth 6-partite, normally bine, with subequal oblong divisions 
with several close or lax ribs on the back. Stamens 6, hypogynous, in- 
cluded ; filaments short, geniculate, with a yellow struma ; anthers 
dehiscing by terminal pores. Ovary globose, sessile ; ovules several 
in a cell; style filiform, simple. Fruit a bright blue globose berry. — 
Herbs or undershrubs, with linear rigid clasping leaves and copious 
flowers in corymbose panicles. Histrib. Warmer regions of Old 
World, especially Australia. Species 11. 
1. D. ensifolia, Bed. Lil. tab. 1. A caulescent glabrous perennial, 
3-6 feet high. Leaves 1-2 feet long, coriaceous, green, smooth on 
the keel and edges, clasping the stem at the base. Panicle obversely 
deltoid, lax, a foot or more long ; pedicels i-f in. long, articulated at 
the tip ; bracts small, linear. Perianth in. long, blue, or rarely 
white. Anthers £ in. long, twice as long as the filament. Berry 
the size of a pea. Dracaena ensifolia, Linn. Dianella nemorosa, 
Lam. ; Bojer, Hort. Maur. 348. 
Mauritius and Seychelles, frequent in woods. Also Madagascar, Bourbon, 
Tropical Asia and Polynesia, not Continental Africa. Heine des bois. 
8. ASPARAGUS, Linn. 
Flowers hermaphrodite or polygamous. Perianth small, white, 
campanulate, with 6 equal obtuse divisions free down to the base. 
Stamens included, inserted at the base of the segments ; anthers 
round or oblong, versatile. Ovary globose, sessile ; ovules 2 or several 
in a cell ; style cylindrical, obscurely tricuspidate at the tip. Fruit a 
globose berry, often by abortion 1-celled and 1-seeded. — Herbs or 
shrubs, often scandent, with leaves reduced down to membranous 
scales, often spiny at the base and their function fulfilled by copious 
usually fascicled sterile branches (cladodes.) Distrib. Everywhere in 
the Old World. Species 90-100. 
Stems not spiny. Flowers in axillary umbels . . . . 1. A. umbellulatus. 
Stems spiny. Flowers in racemes 2. A. racemosus. 
1. A. umbellulatus, Sieber ; BaTcer in Journ. Linn. Boc. xiv. 611. 
A scandent shrub, with firm slender woody stems and deflexed branch- 
lets. Leaves not distinctly spiny at the base. Cladodes 1-3 together in 
the axillary clusters, angular or slightly compressed, f-1 in. long. 
Flowers hermaphrodite, in dense axillary umbels, on pedicels i in. 
long, which are articulated at the middle. Perianth -£• in. long, the 
divisions spreading when fully expanded. Anthers oblong, i the length 
of the subulate filament. Ovules several in a cell. Asparagopsis 
umbellulata, K unth, Enum. v. 81. Asparagus crispus, Bojer , Hort. 
Maur. 350, not Lam. 
Mauritius and Rodriguez, frequent in thickets. Endemic. A. Crispin , Lam., 
though attributed by the author to Mauritius, is really a Cape species. 
