67 
prehendens ore membranä inconspicuä staminiferá munito, limbus tubum 
longé superans reflexé patens laciniis uninervibus, filamenta vix inferne 
dilatata petalina ore tubi sepalina parum infra inserta, antherse parvule, 
stylus cylindricus brevis citó marcescens non deciduus, stigmata tria 
brevia tenuia patentia, capsula subrotunda, folialinearia, semina obovata, 
rugosa, nigra, hilo albido ; odor alliaceus nullus.— W. H. 
Sp. 1. C. Neriniflorum ; bulbo parvulo, foliis dodrantalibus 4*; uncise latis 
subglaucis crassis dorso rotundato superficie subcanaliculaté planá, caule 
7-unc. vel infra tenui, spathá 2 unc. univalvi latà 1-2-bracteatá, pedun- 
eulis subduodecim 24 unc. vel infra, perianthio vix semunciali roseo- 
purpurascente strià medià obscuriore. Habitat insulam Chusan dictam. 
Allium Chinense fl. dilute violaceis proculdubio Caloscordi species. 
This plant was sent to Spofforth by J. Trevor Alcock, 
Esq. who received it from Chusan when that island was 
occupied by our troops, and it has since flowered three seasons. 
The foregoing description renders it almost necessary to ad- 
vert to Prof. Kunth’s Enumeratio, &c. art. Asphodelez. 
'The name Pseudoscordum was proposed (Herbert Amarylli- 
dacez, Prelim. Tr. p. 11 & Index) for the scentless race of 
Allium, as a genus distinguished from the rest; Prof. Kunth 
has thought fit to separate them by the name Nothoscordum, 
an alteration without cause which is not admissible ; but in 
fact all these plants (as well as Hesperocordum, which does 
not appear very clearly separable from Allium senescens and 
some other species,) are perhaps to be considered rather as 
sections of Allium. The public, when told that Prof. Kunth's 
character of Pseudoscordum (named by him Nothoscordum) 
extends to twenty-six closely printed lines, may perbaps ex- 
pect to find that its separation from Allium is strictly defined ; 
but it will be found that it is not directly distinguished there- 
from by him in any one respect, and even the important fact 
of the absence of the alliaceous scent is omitted ; the plant 
being contrasted not with Allium, but with Dr. Lindley's 
Hesperocordum, which name he has also thought fit to alter 
without reason to Hesperoscordium. And here it is neces- 
sary to pause and enter a protest on behalf of the publie 
against Prof. Kunth's work altogether, as compiled on such 
an injudicious plan, that as to generic characters 1t per- 
plexes, instead of assisting, the inquirer. If the compiler 
and arranger of such a work has any useful and legitimate 
office, it is to simplify and render manifest the important 
points by which vegetables are connected with each other, 
and, subordinate to those demarcations, the lesser points 
by which they are distinguished. . Prof. Kunth, on the con- 
K — October, 1814. k 
