The Amaryllidaceae is a large family of perennial herbs usually growing from bulbs with simple, alternate leaves and containing about sixty genera and over 800 species. At one time or another, members of this family have been included in the Liliaceae and the Alliaceae (onion) families, and are closely related to Agapanthus. They are mainly distributed in tropical and subtropical parts of the world. Major regions of diversity for this family are South Africa and South America. The flowers are often large and showy and held at the end of a leafless stem called a scape, and they are frequently utilized in garden plantings. The family was originally described in 1805 by Jean Henri Jaume St. Hilaire and was named in honor of Amaryllis, a lovely shepherdess referred to by Theocritus, Virgil and Ovid in classical times and by the English pastoral poets of the 16th and 17th centuries.