332 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
Onion, beloved of cooks. The segments of the flower 
are white, and in this case they spread widely from 
the base, so that each blossom is a six-rayed star, and 
about a dozen of them are united in an umbel at the 
summit of a three-sided scape. Before the flowers 
open, the entire umbel is wrapped up in a two-leaved 
spathe. The ovary secretes honey which is retained 
between the carpel-divisions and the base of the three 
inner stamens, and to obtain it the insect must thrust 
its head between stigma and anther, touching both, 
and so effecting cross - fertilisation much as in 
Solomon’s Seal, though the shape of the perianth is 
so different. When the flower first opens, neither the 
stamens nor the pistil is mature. First the anthers 
mature and open one after the other, the inner set 
first. They open on the side towards the style, then 
turn their pollen-covered faces upwards to offer a 
greater obstruction to any insect alighting. It is not 
until they have all burst that the stigma is mature, 
and should it not quickly be dusted with pollen 
brought from another plant it curls over until it 
touches one of the latest anthers and so secures 
fertilisation. A Humble-bee (Bombus pratorwm) has 
been observed to visit the flowers. 
The Wild Leek (Alliwm ampeloprasum) is regarded 
as only naturalised in a few localities, but I have 
found it growing on Cornish cliffs and banks in such 
situations as preclude the probability of its having 
been planted or escaped from gardens far away. 
This plant has rounded leaves two or three feet in 
length, and the flower-scape rises to a height of four 
or six feet with a globular head of buds wrapped in 
the single spathe which ends in a long upright beak, 
