( 186 ) 



Description of several New or Rare Plants which have lately 

 Jlowered in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and chiefly in 

 the Royal Botanic Garden. By Dr Graham, Professor 

 of Botany in the University of Edinburgh. 



loth June 1831. 



Allium paradoxicum. 



A. paradoxicum ; folio (unico ?) piano, argute carinato, lanceolato-lineari ; 

 umbella bulbifera (uni ?) pauciflora ; pedunculis pendulis, spatham 

 membranaceam superantibus ; scape triquetro folium sequante ; petalo 

 oblongo, stamuiibus uniformibus, duplo longiori. 

 Allium paradoxicum, Fischer, MS. 



Description Bulb small, ovate, covered with a thin brown exfoliating 



tunic, forming offsets at its base. Scape (6 inches high) erect, naked, 

 triquetrous. Leaf (solitary ?) lanceolato-linear, flat in front, sharply 

 keeled behind, equal in length to the scape, the base of which it em- 

 braces, and is itself encased by a thin membranous bluntish compressed 

 sheath. Umbel bearing several ovate, somewhat pointed, white shining 

 bulbs, few- (in our specimens only one-) flowered. Spathe thin, mem- 

 branous, colourless, transparent, splitting as the bulbs enlarge into 

 two or three acuminated segments. Peduncles longer than the spathe, 

 nodding or pendulous, nearly round, swollen at the apex. Corolla 

 white, having to a cursory glance the appearance of a Leucojum ; pe- 

 tals elliptical, in two rows, the inner narrowest. Stamens half the 

 length of the corolla ; filaments of rather unequal length, otherwise uni- 

 form, white, subulate, erect, attached by their backs at the base to the 

 petals ; anthers small, yellow. Pistil equal in length to the stamens ; 

 stigma trifid, segments short, diverging ; style straight, slightly taper- 

 ing, 3-sided, colourless ; germen trilobular, pale green, seated on a dark 

 green receptacle, which between the lobes has on each side a minute 

 yellow gland ; ovules placed in two rows, between which, in each cell, is 

 the suture. The whole plant has the strong garlic smell. 

 To the ofLen-experienced Uberality, and obliging friendly attention of Dr 

 Fischer of St Petersburgh, I was indebted for this, and a variety of other 

 interesting bulbs in September last. It is a native of the banks of the 

 Volga, and flowered with us in the open border in the beginning of May. 

 If its pretty, pendulous, and pure white blossoms, shall fail to attract 

 the attention of the florist, perhaps its neat small bulbs may suggest to 

 another set of cultivators the propriety of inquiring whether it has other 

 qualities which may make it desirable as a pickle. It will probably pro- 

 duce bulbs in abundance. 



Arbutus mucronata. 



A. mucronata ; caule lignoso diffuso ; foliis ovatis, cuspidatis, denticu- 

 lato-serrulatis, rigidis, utrinque nitidis ; pedunculis axillaribus, folia 

 subtequantibus, bracteatis, 1-floris, cernuis. 

 Arbutus mucronata, Forst. 



Description Shrub much branched from the root ; branches diffused, 



round, bark brown and c racked ; younger branches reddish, sparingly 

 pubescent, the hairs flexuose, subulate, arising from red glands, at first 

 white, and soon becoming yellow. Leaves (8 lines long, 4 broad) on short 

 petioles, scattered, turned towards the light, flat, naked and shining, 

 dark green in front, pale behind, coriaceous, with a distinct middle rib, 



