MUSCARI. 
All in this following group have oblong bells: 
M. racemosum has grooved rushlike leaves lying on the ground, 
and a dense egg-shaped spike; it has a variety M. r. brachyanthum 
which is M. Szovitzianum, Rupr., of catalogues, and stands apart in 
being shorter in the bell and different in the leaf, though with the 
same rounded capsule. 
M. latifolium has one broad leaf embracing the 12-inch stem ; the 
sterile flowers sit close to the spike and are tubular, while the fertile 
ones depend and are urn-shaped (M. paradoxum, Tchihat.). 
M. pendulum stands near to VM. racemosum, but the pods are long 
and pendulous, instead of being erect and round. 
M. pulchellum differs from M. racemosum in having a long loose 
spike instead of a dense egg-shaped one; and the blossoms hang from 
longer pedicels on the stem, and their little turned-back teeth are 
larger, longer, and whiter. The leaves are threadlike and floppety. 
M. neglectum is in all its parts a larger M. racemosum, with leaves 
that are not narrowly grooved, but with a broad ample furrow. 
M. commutatum, again, is near M. racemosum, but has broader 
leaves, a shorter denser spike still, and no sterile flowers. Its bells 
are dark violet-blue, and the little teeth do not turn back much, and 
are the same colour as the rest of the flower. 
M. mordoanum, from Corcyra, has longer and less open bells, with 
whitish teeth ; and the bells are of bright amethyst. 
M. Bourgaei is near M. commutatum, but both the leaves and the 
stem are much shorter, with the flowers on longer pedicels, in a looser 
spike. It is an alpine from beside the snows of Cadmus, &c. 
M. polyanthum has much the same ample leafage of IZ. commutatum 
and M. neglectum, but the foot-stalks of the bells are longer, and the 
spike consequently looser, while the pod is conspicuously much 
smaller. 
All in this following group have rounded or oval bells: 
M. botryoeides has long thin very narrow grooved leaves, pointed 
at the tip, with a short oblong or cylindric spike of many flowers ; 
these being violet-blue and globular, with short whitish teeth a little re- 
curved—the whole plant so familiar and well-beloved in all its forms 
as hardly to need this police-court description, unless to tell it from its 
cousins. The form Heavenly Blue is of a rare exquisiteness, and there 
are paler and far more lovely beauties yet, to say nothing of white 
forms and roseate forms, all rare and expensive. 
M. Heidreichit is an alpine kinsman of the last, from the stony places 
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