APPENDIX. 



elegant than in C. rhomboidalis. This abounds in the grass-lands of the Tao 

 River district, colouring the hillsides in August. F 354 is very similar, but 

 appears shorter and staffer in the spike. It hails from a different district, from 

 the alpine herbage in the valley opposite to Satanee, and I have not seen it 

 in flower. Finally, F 492 will not yet be distributed, as I think it may prove 

 identical with F 235, being from the same region, a pinch of winter seed col- 

 lected from the dried capsules on the crest of Monk Mountain. 



Allium.— In no race are the Alps of Kansu and Tibet more prolific. Of 

 the commoner and cruder sorts I have taken little note, and, even among such 

 as I have considered beautiful, the seed may sometimes yield confusion. F 165 

 is a narrow-leaved species, with spraying heads of pink stars on stems of about 

 5 inches in high summer. It abounds in South Kansu, and in the sub-alpine 

 turf above Siku, though it is possible that two species are concealed under one 

 number here. Even more possible is it that even more species may be con- 

 cealed under F 222, the most important of the lot. 



Allium cyaneum. — I greatly suspect that this name embraces several 

 of the lovely bluebell-blue Garlics that so abound all over the Alps of South 

 Kansu and Tibet, dotted freely in the hot alpine herbage (with close heads and 

 colour), or forming mats on the ledges of cool limestone cliffs (with spraying 

 heads of celestial stars), but always and everywhere, even on the highest ridges 

 to which they ascend, objects of greatest charm and elegance and delight in 

 August. It should not be easy to fail at home with A. cyaneum, already 

 introduced by Potanin through Petrograd, but never yet fully realised in English 

 gardens. F 258 occurs rather higher than typical A. cyaneum, in the alpine 

 turf of the Min S'an. It is not a match for its blue rival, being a Garlic of 

 5 or 6 inches, with a tight round head of yellow blossoms in July and August. 

 F 304 is not yet capable of distribution ; a bulb or two were sent home, but 

 this pretty thing blooms so late in October that I was not able to get more 

 than two or three doubtfully ripe seeds. It is a delightful little species, making 

 a pair to the cliff -haunting form of A. Jcansuense ; for it grows only on cool 

 shady ledges of the limestone, where it forms mats and sends up numbers of 

 3- or 4-inch stems, each carrying a loose, radiant head of a few soft pink stars. 

 This is found about Siku ; and about Siku too the last, and perhaps the best, 

 of this year's Garlics. F 305 is a high-alpine, only seen at some 12,000 to 12,500 

 feet, growing in the upper slopes of the great limestone screes on Thundercrown, 

 in very hard caky loam, overlaid with small chips. It may prove only a develop- 

 ment of A. cyaneum, but I am definitely inclined to believe it a distinct species. 

 It grows in tight little colonies, has long reddish, deep-set bulbs, and rather 

 nodding heads of the loveliest Puschkinia-blue blossoms on stems of 4 inches 

 in mid- August, of colour much paler and softer than in any form of A. cyaneum 

 (unless it was a frost which had bitten them into that beauteous pallor). And 

 the last of our blue Garlics is F 321 — a most dainty little grassy thing of 4 

 inches, the whole tuft breaking into a shower of rather dark-blue heads. This 

 was collected by Purdom from shallow shelves of soil in the limestone rocks of 

 Lotus Mountain ; blooming in August-September no seed could be got, but its 



491 



