E. NASIR

Plants cormatose without scale leaves; coat brownish. Leaves radical, narrowly to broadly linear. Scape subsessile to sessile. Flowers hypogynous, hermaphrodite. Perianth of 6 tepals, united to form a tube or split to the base. Stamens 6, inserted at the bases of the perianth segments, included; anthers extrorse. Carpels 3; ovary sessile, trilocular, styles 3, free to the base or united within the perianth tube; ovules many. Fruit capsular, dehiscence septicidal.

A small family of 17 genera and c. 200 species. Represented in Pakistan by 1 genus and 3 species.

Many authors include it in Liliaceae from which it differs in having extrorse dehiscence of the anthers, 3 distinct styles and septicidal dehiscence of the capsule.

Acknowledgements: we are grateful to the United States Department of Agriculture for financing this research under PL-480. Thanks are also due to Dr. P. Wendelbo for helpful suggestions and to Mr. I.C. Hedge for going through the manuscript.

Lower Taxon

• Colchicum Linn