Perennial herbs, rarely shrubs or trees. Root fibrous, or rhizome tuberous or bulbous or creeping. Stem herbaceous or woody, erect or climbing, tall or scarcely produced beyond the radical leaves. Leaves usually in radical tufts, or crowded at the ends of the stems or branches, or scattered along the branches, very various in size, shape, and texture. Flowers usually regular, hermaphrodite or rarely unisexual, inflorescence very various. Peri-anth inferior, petaloid; tube long or short; limb 6-lobed or par-page 702tite; segments in 2 series, imbricate or rarely valvate. Stamens 6, rarely 3, inserted towards the base of the perianth-segments and opposite to them, rarely hypogynous; filaments free or connate at the base; anthers oblong or linear, 2-celled, versatile. Ovary superior, 3-celled (sometimes imperfectly so in Astelia); style usually simple with a small terminal stigma, or more or less deeply divided, into 3 stigmatic branches; ovules few or many in each cell, attached to the inner angle, usually anatropous. Fruit a 3-celled (rarely 1-celled) capsule or berry. Seeds 1 or more in each ceil, globose or angular or flattened; testa frequently black, crustaceous or membranous; albumen copious, fleshy or horny; embryo small, terete.

A very large and important order, found all over the world, but more abundant in temperate and subtropical regions than in the tropics. It is fre-quently divided into 3 or i separate orders, but in a small Flora it seems advisable to avoid extreme subdivision. Genera estimated at 190, species about 2500. The order has many useful species, The onion, leek, garlic, and asparagus are well-known edible plants. Aloes, squills, and sarsaparilla are important medicines. Phormium produces one of the strongest of vege-table fibres. Some are dangerous poisons, as white hellebore and meadow-saffron. Among the multitude of showy garden-plants it will be sufficient to mention tbe lily, tulip, hyacinth, asphodel, lily of the valley. Of the 10 genera found in New Zealand, Phormium extends to Norfolk Island; Rhipogonum, Herpolirion, and Arthropodium occur in Australia, the latter in. New Caledonia as well; Enargea in Chili and the Falkland Islands; Astelia in. Australia, the Pacific islands, and temperate South America; Bulbinella in South Africa; the remaining three (Cordyline, Dianella, and Iphigenia) are widely distributed.

A. Fruit a berry.

* Leaves with distant parallel primary veins connected by transverse veinlets.

Tall branching climber. Leaves usually opposite. Flowers racemose or paniculate	1. Rhipogonum.
Stems short, wiry, creeping. Leaves alternate. Flowers solitary or 2–3, axillary	2. Enargea.

** Veins of leaves not connected by transverse veinlets.

Stems woody, usually arborescent. Leaves crowded at the ends of the stem or branches, glabrous. Flowers her maphrodite; perianth deciduous	3. Cordyline.
Large tufted herbs. Leaves all radical, more or less clothed with silky hairs. Flowers dioecious; perianth persistent	4. Astelia.
Tufted herbs. Leaves all radical, glabrous. Flowers her maphrodite; filaments thickened upwards	5. Dianella.

B. Fruit a capsule.

Leaves long, narrow, coriaceous, Scape tall, branched above. Perianth tubular, curved	6. Phormium.
Leaves, linear, fleshy. Scape stout, naked, Flowers race mose, yellow; filaments naked	7. Bulbinella.
Scape stout, with leafy bracts. Flowers panicled, white; pedicels jointed in the middle. Filaments bearded	8. Arthropodium. page 703
Small alpine herb. Rhizome creeping. Leaves dis- tichous. Flowers large, solitary, sessile. Style fili- form.	9. Herpoltrion.
Small herbs. Rootstock a tunicate corm. Leaves few. Flower small. Styles 3.	10. Lphigenia,