Dec. 1890.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 27 



prasttm proper, with no bulbils ; A. hulbiferum, with few 

 bulbils ; and A. BabiTigtonii, with few flowers and very many 

 bulbils. Beutham remarks * that A. Babingtonii " is a variety 

 with sessile bulbs in the umbel in lieu of the flowers, a 

 character which it loses by cultivation." 



It would appear then that the bulbil-bearing tendency is 

 directly correlated with the conditions under which the 

 species grow. Can the correlation be traced ? Is it a 

 greater drain on the nutritive functions of the plant to bear 

 flowers and fruit with seed than bulbils which are vegetative 

 buds of a kind ? 



In A. Ampeloprastom, variety Babingtonii, increase of nutri- 

 tion, such as may safely be assumed as the outcome of 

 cultivation, apparently leads to the production of flowers 

 rather than bulbils. Unfortunately, however, for any hypo- 

 thesis one might advance based upon this case, the reverse is 

 seen as the result of cultivation of A. vinecde, and many 

 species which are bulbiferous in nature continue in this con- 

 dition under cultivation in the Eoyal Botanic Garden. 



A number of specimens of A. vineale were taken a year 

 past in June from the old wall at St Andrews, and planted 

 in the University Botanic Garden, St Andrews. They stood 

 over the summer of 1889 without showing any remarkable 

 feature, but during last summer they assumed quite unusual 

 proportions. The scape was 2| feet in height, and the 

 leaves proportionately long and stout. The heads, formed 

 entirely of bulbils, with no trace of a flower, were composed 

 in some cases of five or six sub-globose divisions, each borne 

 on a stalk formed by the splitting — not branching — of the 

 top of the scape. In the fully-developed condition the out- 

 ward curvature of the split portions was very considerable. 

 The splitting is evidently due primarily to the mechanical 

 effect of the bulbils pressing against one another in growth. 



Here the effects of cultivation have led to increased bulbil- 

 bearing, not to the production of flower ; a case when 

 increased nutrition tends to heighten the vegetative rather 

 than the reproductive powers. 



It is possible that A. vineale in its dry habitat may be 

 more safely propagated by bulbils than by seeds, and thus in 

 course of time become more prone to bear bulbils. Having 

 * Op. cit. p. 485. 



