ANNALS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



XXXI. — On Allium Porrum and A. Ampeloprasum. By 

 Charles C. Babington, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. 



In my ^ Primitiae Florae Sarnicae/ p. 95, I have mentioned 

 the great difficulty which exists in distinguishing between A, 

 Porrum and Ampeloprasum, and am induced to communicate 

 the following attempt at their discrimination to the ^Annals 

 of Natural History/ in the hope that it may assist other bo- 

 tanists in determining the plants. Unfortunately the root is 

 not usually to be found upon specimens of such large size as 

 these leeks, for when that is present there can be no difficulty 

 in distinguishing the species ; the root of A, Porrum (the 

 true leek,) being formed of numerous concentric coats like 

 that of an onion, producing no offsets whatever, and there- 

 fore its duration being not more than biennial; whilst that of ^. 

 Ampeloprasum consists of a few concentric coats, including 

 from two to four large offsets, and thereby somewhat resem- 

 bling, in its transverse section, the bulb of a hyacinth, but 

 having much larger offsets in proportion to the concentric 

 coats. Happily the structure of the flowers, which at the first 

 view appears similar in both plants, will supply us with ex- 

 cellent characters when examined with care. I have endea- 

 voured in the wood cuts which accompany this short commu- 

 nication, to give some idea of the form of the germen, and of 

 the form and proportions of the perigone and stamens in each 

 plant. It will be seen that in both of them the germen is 

 constricted at about the middle, but that in A, Porrum the 

 constricted part is continued upwards, and in A. Ampelopra- 

 sum it is continued downwards ; this is best seen at the time 

 of flowering, as the enlargement of the fruit often nearly ob- 

 literates it, but will not be always found so strongly marked 

 as in my figures. In the former the segnients of the perigone 

 are shorter than the common filament of the ;^-pointed 

 Ann, Nat. Hist. Vol. 4. No. 25. Jan. 1840. y 



