Botany for Ladies: or, A Popular Introduction to the Natural System of Plants, According to the Classification of De Candolle.Loudon, Mrs. (Jane)
Science
Botany for Ladies: or, A Popular Introduction to the Natural System of Plants, According to the Classification of De Candolle.
Loudon, Mrs. (Jane)
Botany; Plants -- Classification
A large order of genera, all of which have bulbous roots, and most
of them splendid flowers. Some of the most interesting genera
are—Amaryllis, Nerine (the Guernsey Lily), Brunsvigia, Hæmanthus,
Crinum, Pancratium, Narcissus, Galanthus (the Snowdrop), Leucojum,
Alstrœmeria, and Doryanthes. The different kinds of Amaryllis have
large lily-like flowers, divided into six equal segments, which are
joined into a tube below, with six stamens, the anthers of which are
turned towards the pistil, and a long style crowned with a simple
stigma. The ovary is beneath the other parts of the flower, to which
it serves as a receptacle; and in most of the plants it looks like a
small green calyx below the perianth. The leaves are very long, but
they are rather thick and fleshy, and their edge is not turned towards
the stem. In Narcissus, Pancratium, and some other genera, the flowers
have a kind of cup within the perianth, formed of the filaments of
abortive stamens grown together. In Pancratium, the filaments of the
anther-bearing stamens grow into the others, so as to form a part of
the cup, the anthers springing from the margin of it; but in Narcissus,
the fertile stamens are distinct. In Galanthus, and its allied genera,
the anthers open by pores, as in the Ericaceæ, and there is a kind of
receptacle on the germen, in which the petals, and sepals, and the
filaments of the stamens, are inserted.
ORDER CXCI.—HEMEROCALLIDEÆ.
This order, which included the Day Lilies (_Hemerocallis_ and
_Funkia_), the African Lily (_Agapanthus_), the Aloe (_Aloë_), the
Tuberose (_Polianthes_), with several other genera which have their
flowers in upright racemes or umbels, is now generally considered to
form a section of the order Liliaceæ.
ORDER CXCII.—DIOSCOREÆ.
The Yam (_Dioscoreæ_), and the Elephant’s-foot (_Testudinaria_), are
the principal genera in this order; and both have an enormously-large
tuberous root which is eatable, and a very slender climbing stem, with
rather small leaves and inconspicuous flowers. The ovary is below the
flower, and the fruit is capsular.
ORDER CXCIII.—TAMACEÆ.
This order consists only of the genus _Tamus_, the Black Bryony, which
Dr. Lindley includes in Dioscoreæ. It has, however, a berry-like fruit.
ORDER CXCIV.—SMILACEÆ.
This order includes Smilax, the root of a species of which affords the
drug called Sarsaparilla, the Lily of the Valley (_Convallaria_), and
the Alexandrian Laurel, or Butcher’s Broom (_Ruscus_). The male and
female flowers in Smilax are on different plants; and in Ruscus the
flowers spring from the middle of the leaves. The perianth is in six
equal segments, and there are six stamens. The ovary is three-celled,
with the cells one or many seeded, and the fruit is a globose berry.
The seeds, when ripe, have a brown membranous skin. Dr. Lindley
confines this tribe to Smilax, and Ripogonum; and includes the other
genera in Liliaceæ.
ORDER CXCV.—ASPHODELEÆ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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