LILIACE®. 205 
Head-bulbules very numerous, from the size of peas to that of small 
hazel-nuts, forming a compact globular head, from which the pedicels 
of the flowers project rather thinly; these pedicels are often of un- 
equal length, and sometimes proliferous. Flowers pale rose-coloured, 
darker at the apex, with the midrib greenish. 
On rocky places and on hedgebanks. Var a naturalised on Steep 
Holmes Island, in the estuary of the Severn. Var. 6 doubtfully wild 
on ledges of rock below St. Peter’s Barracks, Guernsey. Var. y doubt- 
fully wild in orchards at Grade and Ruan Minor, Cornwall; near 
Little Bredy, Dorsetshire; truly wild in several places in the Great Isle 
of Arran, co. Galway; also “on lan Glas, opposite Roundstone ” 
(Professor Babington); ‘near Roundstone, sparingly” (Professor 
Olliver).—Cyb. Hib. 
[England,] Ireland. Perennial. Late Summer, early Autumn. 
The Steep Holmes plant flowers when the bulb is about the size of 
a greengage plum. At the time of flowering this bulb has on each 
side of the flowering stem a large roundish-ovate compressed offset, 
one of which flowers the next year; besides this, there are usually 
towards the base a number of subhemispherical angular acuminated 
shortly-stalked bulbules, which do not flower for several years after 
their first appearance. According to Mr. Borrer, there are sometimes 
three or four offsets in the bulb; but this I have never met with. 
The coats of the bulb are white. The stem is about the thickness of 
a man’s finger at the base, and tapers upwards, attaining a height of 
3 to 6 feet. Leaves distichous, all sheathing the stem so that it 
appears to be leafy; but, as is the case in all other species of the genus 
which have apparently leafy stems, the leafsheaths spring from the 
bulb, of which the bases of the leaves form coats; the lamina is 8 
to 18 inches long by 3 to 1 inch or 1} inch broad, folded so as to 
form a gutter along the midrib, keeled on the back, the keel and 
margins rough with minute cartilaginous prickles; the leaves appear 
at the close of autumn and decay before the fruit is ripe. The spathe 
is greenish-white, about the size of a small apricot, abruptly acumi- 
nated into a compressed hornlike beak 1} to 2 inches long and a little 
turned over at the apex; the spathe splits round the base and is thrown 
off as the pedicels lengthen. Pedicels very numerous, unequal, the 
longest about 2 inches long, disposed so as to form a globose umbel. 
Perianth leaves ovate-oblong, about } inch long, white, tinged with 
pink towards the apex, scabrous on the keel and on the margins. 
Anthers yellow. Capsules about the size of sweet-pea seeds, very 
bluntly trigonous. Seeds shaped like one of the divisions of an orange, 
rough, black. 
Var. @ differs from the preceding solely in having numerous 
oO 
bulbules at the base of the pedicels, which are compacted together 
