very confufed in this refpett. ‘The difficulty arifes in part from 
its great affinity with de/cendeus (Bot. Mag. No. 251.) to which it 
mult be allowed to be too nearly allied, and of which probably 
it ought to rank as a variety only. Wurxticu, and latterly 
Hatter, both confider /pherocephalon and defcendens as the fame 
fpecies; and Vitiars feems inclined to this opinion. 
The hiftory of Hatter’s change of fentiments is not a little 
curious. In his monograph on Attium, he had made two 
fpecies of them (No. 8 and No. 9); which Linn aus, in his 
Flora Suecica, united. At this union, Hatier expreffes his 
furprize, in the fecond edition of his monograph on Autium, 
publifhed in his opufcula. Then Linn us, in the firft edition 
of his Species Plantarum, made two fpecies of them, and, as it 
appears that he had at that time no fpecimen of /pherocephalon in 
his herbarium, this was probably done in compliance with 
HALLER’s opinion; yet, in his Hiftoria Plantarum Helvetia, 
the latter author has thought fit to unite them himfelf ; remarking, 
that Linn#us, who was at firft right, had done wrong in fe- 
parating them. Finally, Linn us, in his Syftema Vegetabi- 
lium, orders Hatisr’s fynonym to be excluded altogether. 
Harter was probably induced to change his: opinion, and 
unite what he had_ before confidered as two diftin& {pecies into 
one, by the obfervations of Witticu, though he has not 
quoted this author. Wuxtzicu had met with Spharocephalon 
growing without culture in a garden, and fhewed the plant.to 
Haxter, who pronounced it to be No. 8 of his monograph on 
Allium (No. 10 in his opufcula). Removing this plant into his own 
garden, Wixticu obferves, that in the following year it became 
in every refpeét the fame as de/cendens ; Haiier’s Allium, No. 9s 
(No. 14 in the opufcula). This obfervation, could we be fure 
there was no error, which, however, might eafily happen in a 
genus fo imperfeétly underftood, would be decifive. But we 
are {till inclined to believe, that the greater length of the 
ftamens in /pherocephalon may keep them diftin@. Lamarck 
and Decanpboutrsz, in their Flore Francoife, make de/éendens a 
variety of our plant; as the former had before done in the 
Encyclopedie Methodique. | . 
Native of Italy, South of France, and Switzerland. Culti- 
vated by Mruier, in 1759, Flowers in July. Communicated 
by Mr, Hawortu. 1076 
