Flower with Perianth removed.
It has pale-purple flowers, rarely more than three in number; the perianth is funnel-shaped, and produced below into a long slender tube, in the upper part of which the six stamens are inserted.
The conformation of those flowers a consists essentially in the pres- ' 'A B ence of a six-parted perianth, the three outer segments of which correspond to a calyx, the three inner ones to a corolla.
These segments spring apparently from the top of the ovary - the real explanation, however, being that the end of the flower-stalk or "thalamus," as it grows, becomes dilated into a sort of cup or tube enclosing and indeed closely adhering to the ovary, so that the latter organ appears to be beneath the perianth instead of above it as in a lily, an appearance which has given origin to the term "inferior ovary."
Within the perianth, and springing from its sides, or apparently from the top of the ovary, are six stamens whose anthers contain pulverulent pollen-grains.