This order includes the Hyacinth (_Hyacinthus_), the squills (_Scilla_), the onions (_Allium_), the Grape Hyacinth (_Muscari_), the Star of Bethlehem (_Ornithogalum_), King’s Spear (_Asphodelus_), _Anthericum_, _Albuca_, _Gagea_, _Thysanotus_, _Asparagus_, the Dragon-wood (_Dracæna_), and New Zealand flax (_Phormium_). Many of these plants have tunicated bulbs; that is, bulbs which consist of several fleshy tunics or coats, which may easily be separated from each other, as may be seen in the hyacinth and the onion. The leaves are fleshy, and ligulate or strap-shaped; and the stems are frequently hollow. The flowers are generally in upright racemes, or umbels; they are regular, and sometimes bell-shaped; the perianth is divided into six segments, which are sometimes partly united into a tube, and recurved at the tip. There are six stamens attached to the perianth, and the fruit is either a fleshy or dry three-celled capsule, generally with several seeds, and opening into three valves, when ripe. Dr. Lindley makes this a separate order in his _Ladies’ Botany_, but he combines it with Liliaceæ in his _Introduction to the Nat. Syst._, and Sir W. J. Hooker includes in it Yucca and Aloe, the first of which in the _Hortus Britannicus_ is included in Tulipaceæ, and the latter in Hemerocallideæ. ORDER CXCVI.—TULIPACEÆ. This order in the _Hortus Britannicus_ comprises the genera Yucca, Tulipa, Fritillaria, Cyclobothra, Calochortus, Lilium, Gloriosa, and Erythronium (the Dog Violet); but Sir W. J. Hooker omits Yucca, and adds Blandfordia, Hemerocallis, and Polianthes; while Dr. Lindley includes all these plants, together with those comprised in Asphodeleæ, in the order Liliaceæ. This last appears the most natural arrangement, as all these plants have a regular perianth of six segments, with six stamens, and a dry or fleshy capsule of three cells, opening by as many valves. Some of the genera have more seeds than others, and some of the seeds have a hard, dry, black skin, while others have the skin spongy and soft. Some of the genera have the flowers erect and single, as in the Tulip; in others the flowers are erect, but in umbels, as in the Orange Lily; and in others they are in racemes and drooping, as in the Yucca, or single and drooping, as in the Fritillaria, or with the segments curved back as in the Martagon Lily. ORDER CXCVII.—MELANTHACEÆ.