cr.ASS VI. ORDER 1.] ALLIUM. 483 



tapering at the point, keeled at the back, wliich is rough, as well as 

 the margins, with minute teeth, each having a thin membranous 

 stipule at its base, sheathing the stem. Stem round, erect, from two 

 to three feet high, smooth, terminating in a large globose simple 

 umbel, of innumerable light purplish Jiowers, each on a slender long 

 angular smooth shining peduncle, and all of nearly equal length. 

 Bractea large, thin, concave, membranous, terminating in a long slen- 

 der point, deciduous. Perianth conical, of six ovate-lanceolate concave 

 pieces, with a rough keel and margins to the three external ones. 

 Stamens rather longer than the perianth, the three outer ones with 

 simple awl-shaped filaments, the three inner broadly dilated, cut into 

 three slender awl-shaped segments to below the middle, the central one 

 bearing the anther. Style as long as the stamens, triangular, bearing 

 an obtuse simple stigma, the fruit a three acutely angled three celled 

 capsule, containing black angular seeds. 



Habitat.^Yery rare ; in open hilly places. On the Holms Island, 

 in the Severn. 



Perennial ; flowering in August. 



This species of Allium has much the habit of A. porrum, the leek^ 

 but is readily distinguished by its numerous cluster of perennial bulbs. 

 The garlic onion, A. cepa, shallot, A. ascalonicum, and chives, A. 

 schcenoprasum, are all more or less esteemed as condiments or food, 

 and were admitted into the list of pharmacopaeial remedies, possessing 

 a strong unpleasant smell and acrid pungent taste, more or less stimu- 

 lating, diuretic and expectorant, which qualities seem to depend upon 

 the free phosphoric acid which they contain, which is soluble in water, 

 alcohol, acids, and alkalies, and also by heat ; so that though pungent 

 and acrid in a raw state, by cooking they become comparatively mild. 

 The common garlic is far the most powerful in its qualities of the 

 whole tribe; and when taken into the stomach, it acts as a strong 

 stimulant, diffusing its powerful alliaceous odour through the whole 

 system, not only tainting the breath, but the perspiration, milk, 

 urine, and all the excretions of the body, are impregnated with it. It 

 is a favourite article of consumption with the lower order of people in 

 most parts of the Continent, and the odour which they exhale even to 

 a person passing at a moderate distance is very disagreeable ; but 

 where a number of these people are congregated in a room it is more 

 than conceivable. 



Leeks, Onions, and Garlics, are considerably milder when grown in 

 warm climates, than with us ; their texture is not so firm, and they 

 grow to a much larger size : and amongst the Eastern nations they 

 form a considerable article of consumption, especially in Egypt, where 

 they seem to have been in use from a very early period, as we find the 

 complaining Israelites in their march, discontented, saying, in Numbers, 

 ch. xi. V. 5, " We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt 

 freely ; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeksj and the onions. 



