10. Gloriosa.] 245. LILIACE^. 



other bushes and supiJorting itself by the sessile or subsessile leaves, 

 Avhich are 5-6" long excluding the circinate tip. Flowers inverted, 

 tepals 2-3" long by -4 — 6" broad, beautifully waved and crisped, 

 lower half yellow, upper half red, finally the whole turning more or 

 less red, often subcorymbose at the ends of the branches. 



Hedges and low jungles. Central and soiithern areas, common ! Fl., Fr. r.s. 

 The aerial shoots are annual and die down completely by the end of the cold season. 



Eootstock large tonilose. Leaves finely parallel-nerved each side of midrib, 

 base rounded. Pedimcles often 7" long. 



The roots give one of the seven minor poisons of Sanscrit writers, and Dull 

 gives langalika as well as kalikari as Sanscrit names. It is used in Hindu medicine 

 and is also said to yield a violent poison with which the Kols used to tip their 

 arrows. Many Kols, however, profess not to have heard of this, and also state 

 that the root is sometimes eaten after preparation. 



Agapanthus umbellatus, UHer. The Blue African Lily. 



A very beautiful plant Avith tough branched rhizomes and numerous 

 fleshy roots. Leaves linear, rather thick, basal and shortly distichous. 

 Flowers with short cylindrical tube and longer suberect oblanceolate 

 segments, blue (a white variety also occurs). Stamens filiform 

 adnate to the tube. Ovary cells with many ovules. Seeds numerous 

 black flattened imbricate in the almost 3-lobed capsule. 



Frequently cultivated in verandahs, especially on the plateaux. Xative of 

 South Africa. 



11. ALLIUM, L. 



Usually pungently foetid (alliaceous) herbs with tunicate bulbs. 

 Leaves radical and scapose, mostly narrow, terete fistular flat or grooved. 

 Flowers capitate or umbelled, sheathed by 1-2 membranous spathes, 

 sometimes replaced by bulbils. Perianth leaves 6, free, spreading or 

 campanulate. Stamens 6, hypogynous or at the base of the tepals, 

 or perigynous ; filaments free or connate below, anthers oblong. 

 Ovary 3-gonous, style filiform simple or 3-cleft with simple stigmas. 

 Ovules few in each cell. Fruit a membranous 3-lobed capsule, with 

 usually depressed top, loculicidal. Seeds 1-2 at the base of each 

 cell, turgid or compressed, black. Embrj'o curved, excentric, radicle 

 next the hilum. 



AU the following species are cultivated only in oiu province. 

 I. Bulbs not seated on a rhizome : — 



A. Leaves flat, sometimes keeled. Filaments of inner 



whorl 3-cuspidate, the central cusp anther-bearing : — 

 Head with many bulbils. Fls. white . . .1. sativum. 



Head without bulbils. Fls. red or greenish-white . 2. ampeloprasum. 



B. Leaves fistular, terete or semi-terete. Filaments not 



cuspidate, but those of inner whorl sometimes with a 

 tooth each side of the broad base : — 

 St. included. Perianth red . . . . .3. schoenoprasum. 

 St. about as long as perianth. Fls. white or lilac . 4. ascalonicum. 

 St. longer than perianth. Fls. greenish- white . . 5. cepa. 



11. Bulbs elongate seated on a creeping rhizome. L. flat : — 



St. shorter than perianth, perigynous . . .6. tuberosum. 



1. A. sativum, L. Lasuni, beluli, Vern. ; Garlic. 



Bulb with membranous outer scales in the axils of which are 10-12 

 lesser bulbs {cloves of gardeners). Leaves flat, linear, with sheaths 



lG9i 



