The American Botanist 



VOL. XIII, JOLIET, ILL., DECEMBER, 1907. No. 4 



LiBRAW 



CONCERNING THE ALLIUMS. new vof 



BY WILLARD N. CLUTE. BOTANIC. 



IN the Allium or onion family, use and beauty go hand in QARDE^ 

 hand. The leek (Allium porrum) the onion {A. Cepa) 

 the garlic {A. sativum) and the chives {A. schoenoprasum) 

 have been cultivated in the garden for the sake of their edible 

 bulbs or tops from time immemorial, while many other spe- 

 cies though inedible, or at least, not especially desirable from 

 a culinary standpoint, have found an honored place in the 

 flower garden because of their beautiful blossoms. Not all 

 the edible species are cultivated, nor have all those with beau- 

 tiful flowers been welcomed to our beds and borders. It is 

 often a mere matter of taste — whether of man or plant not 

 easy to determine — and like other matters of taste, bound 

 by no set rules. 



In Eastern America the native leek is Allium tricoccum. 

 It is a plant quite different in appearance from ordinary 

 Alliums with broad flat leaves instead of the more usual round- 

 ed hollow ones. In flowering, too, it behaves unlike most 

 plants for its blossoms are not put up until all traces of the 

 leaves have disappeared. In midsummer, or later, one may 

 find these strangely belated flower-clusters blooming in the 

 haunts of the spring flowers. It may be said in passing that 

 the bulb of this species is sweet and toothsome and a fine addi- 

 tion to a lunch in the woods. The odor, however, is strong 

 and penetrating. 



Our commonest wild species is Allium canadense which 

 is most abundant along brooks, in moist meadows and in open 

 woodlands. Its bulbs are also edible, but smaller than those of 



