. The classification of flowering plants. Plants. AMARYLLIDACEAE 299 Genera about 65, species about 860, in the warmer parts of both hemispheres, chiefly xerophytic. The members of this order resemble Liliaceae in habit and mode of life. They are perennials, persisting through the dry or otherwise unfavourable season by means of an underground bulb or rhizome, or shewing well-marked xerophytic characters of stem and leaf The commonest form is the tunicated bulb from which arises during the vegetative period a leafless scape bearing a solitary flower, or usually numerous flowers arranged in an
. The classification of flowering plants. Plants. AMARYLLIDACEAE 299 Genera about 65, species about 860, in the warmer parts of both hemispheres, chiefly xerophytic. The members of this order resemble Liliaceae in habit and mode of life. They are perennials, persisting through the dry or otherwise unfavourable season by means of an underground bulb or rhizome, or shewing well-marked xerophytic characters of stem and leaf The commonest form is the tunicated bulb from which arises during the vegetative period a leafless scape bearing a solitary flower, or usually numerous flowers arranged in an apparent umbel and subtended by membranous spath- aceous bracts; and at the same time or subsequently a number of generally linear, distichous radical leaves. To this type belong our three British genera—Narcissus, represented by the Daffodil {N. Pseudo-narcissus), with a solitary flower, though in other species, as in Jonquil (K. Jonquilla), the scape bears an um- bellate inflorescence (fig. 144, A); Galanthus (Snowdrop), with two leaves and a solitary pendulous flower; and Leucojum (Snowflake), which is allied to the last but has numerous leaves and a one- to six- flowered inflorescence. The scape is not terminal, but an axillary product. The structure of a germinating bulb in the Snowdrop, for instance, is as follows (fig. 143, A—E). The thin, dry, brown outer membranes cover a fleshy scale-leaf (A, a), completely surrounding the bulb and ending above in a circular scar. Inside this is a second envelop- ing fleshy scale, h, slightly prolonged above on the outer side, where it ends in a narrow scar. Next inside is a third fleshy scale, c, alternating with the second and also ending above in a scar, but not amplexicaul. It is closely appressed to the flowering shoot, e, which has a membranous cylindrical sheath, enveloping the two green leaves, /, g (in D), and the flowering scape between them. Between the lower green leaf, f, and the scape, h, is the minute terminal bud,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectplants, bookyear1904
