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solitary and terminal, the male flowers in small cymes. The presence of cell wall 
ferulates (Rudall & Caddick 1994) links it with the commelinoid clade, but lack of 
silica contradicts this. Other characters, such as anomocytic stomata and unbranched 
trichomes, link Xerolirion with the asparagoid clade, and in leaf anatomy it most 
closelly resembles the Loinandrci-group. Recent rbcL analysis has placed it vv’ith Lomandra. 
Acknowledgements 
We are grateful to Karen Wilson and Surrey Jacobs (Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney), 
David Bedford (now Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens), Kingsley Dixon and Kathy 
Meney (Kings Park and Botanic Garden, Perth) and Peter Linder (University of 
Cape Town, South Africa), for their invaluable help, both in the field (with PJR), and 
discussion of monocot systematics, especially to David Bedford and other reviewers 
of the manuscript. Thanks are also due to Vicky Wilson, Liz Caddick and Janet 
Rusby (University of Bradford), who prepared some of the microscope slides and 
SEM material during their work experience at Kew, and Anna Lynch (Jodrell Lab, 
RBG, Kew), who helped with the X-ray analysis. Liz Caddick, John Conran, 
Mel Duvall, James Hartwell and Hal Hills supplied DNA sequences. 
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