ASPHODELUS.] LILIACE. 265 
7. ASPHODELUS, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 332, 
Style obconic. Capsule ellipsoid, 4-3 in. long; cells 6-9 seede 
Seeds } in. long flattened, elliptic, bine. r ’ 
Siwalik range (Stewart), also plentiful eastwards in the Sub-Himalayan 
tracts of Pilibhit and N. Oudh. Distrr.: W. Himalaya up to 
7,000 ft.; salt range of Punjab, and south to Konkan; also in 
Burma, and Behar and in Chota Nagpur, extending to Trop. Africa. 
The bitter and nauseous bulbs are used as a substitute for the true 
squill (U. maritima), also by weavers in N. India to give substance 
to their thread. 
Annual or perennial herbs with slender fleshy root-fibres. Leaves 
radical, linear, 3-quetrous or terete, fistular. Flowers racemose on 
a simple or branched leafless scape. Perianth petaloid, marcescent ; 
segments 6, free or shortly connate below. Stamens 6, hypogynous, 
shorter than the perianth-lobes ; filaments dilated at the base and 
embracing the ovary, the summit of the filament inserted in a pit 
on the back of the connective, anthers versatile. Ovary 3-celled; 
style filiform, stigma somewhat 3-lobed; ovules 2, collateral 
in each cell. Fruit a globose loculicidal capsule with rugose parti- 
tions. Seeds usually solitary in each cell; testa black, rugose, 
albumen cartilaginous, embryo rather large.—Species 6 or 7, in 
S. Europe and eastward to India. * 
A. tenuifolius, Cav. in Anal. Cienc. Nat. wii, 46, t. 27, fig. 
2; F. B. I. vi, 332 ; Watt HE. D. ; Collett Fl. Siml. 524 ; Prain 
Beng. Pl. 1076 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. it, 770. A. clavatus, Roxb, Fi. 
Ind. ti, 148. A. fistulosus, Linn.—Vern. Bokat-pidzi. 
Annual. Leaves 6-12 in. long, terete, acute, sheathing at the base 
finely puberulous. Scapes several from the root, much branched 
above, 1-2 ft. Flowers white, laxly racemose, solitary in each bract ; 
pedicels 4-4 in., jointed below the middle; bracts ~,; in., broadly 
ovate, boat-shaped, scarious, with a strong brownish keel. Perianth 
4-4 in. long ; segments oblong, obtuse, with a brownish costa, Sta- 
mens } in. long, acutely 3-gonous black. 
Abundant within the area asa weed of cultivation and often becoming 
a peat. Flowers during the cold season. Disrris,: Plains of India 
in fields, and extending westwards to the Canary Islands and the 
Mediterranean region. The plant and seeds are sometimes eaten 
in India by famine-stricken people. (See Agricultural Ledger, No. 
7, cf. 1902, p. 155.) 
