Semele
(the name of the mother of Bacchus, after whom the genus was named). SYN. Amphion. ORD. Liliaceae. A monotypic genus. The species is an ornamental, greenhouse, evergreen, climbing shrub, thriving in any rich soil. It may be multiplied by division of the roots.
S. androgyna (hermaphrodite). fl. small, fascicled, six to twenty in an umbel; perianth greenish-white, with a very short tube and ovate lobes; umbels solitary or few, produced from the sides, or rarely from the face, of the cladodes. April. Cladodes leaf-like, alternate or scattered, solitary at the axils of small, fuscous-membranous scales, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, coriaceous, with many slender nerves. Stem branched. Canary Islands, 1713. SYN. Ruscus androgynus (B. M. 1898,3029).