LILIACEuE. (LILT FAMILY.) 469 



8. SCIL.L.A, L. Squill. 



Perianth of 6 colored (blue or purple) spreading sepals, mostly deciduous ; 

 the 6 awl-shaped filaments at their base. Style thread-like. Pod 3-angled, 3- 

 valved, with several black roundish seeds in each cell. — Scape and liuear leaves 

 from a coated bulb: the flowers in a simple raceme, mostly bracted. (The 

 ancient name.) 



1. S. Fraseri. (Eastekn Quamash. Wild Hyacinth.) Leaves 

 long and linear, keeled; raceme elongated; bracts solitary, longer than the 

 pedicels ; stigma minutely 3-cleft ; pod triangular, the cells several-seeded. 

 (Phalangium esculentum, Nutt. in part. Scilla esculenta, Ker. Camassia 

 Fraseri, Torr. 77iss. ) — Moist prairies and river-banks, Ohio to "Wisconsin and 

 southwestward. May. — Bulb onion-like, eaten by the Indians. Scape 1° high. 

 Sepals widely spreading, pale blue, 3-nerved, £' long. (I do not discern suffi- 

 cient characters for the genus Camassia.) 



9. ALLIUM, L. Onion. Garlic. 



Perianth of 6 entirely colored sepals, which are distinct, or united at the very 

 base, 1 -nerved, often becoming dry and scarious and more or less persistent: 

 the 6 filaments awl-shaped or dilated at their base. Style persistent, thread- 

 like : stigma simple. Pod lobed, 3-valved, with 1 or few ovoid-kidney-shaped 

 amphitropous or campylotropous black seeds in each cell. — Strong-scented and 

 pungent stemless herbs ; the leaves and scape from a coated bulb : flowers in a 

 6imple umbel, some of them frequently changed to bulblets ; spathe 1 - 2-valved. 

 (The ancient Latin name of the Garlic.) 



* Ovules and seeds only one in each cell : leaves broad and flat, appearing in early 



spring, and dying before the flowers are developed. 



1. A. tB'icoccillll, Ait. (Wild Leek.) Scape naked (9' high), bear- 

 ing an erect many-flowered umbel; leaves lance-oblong (5' -9' long, 1' — 2' 

 wide); scapes 1° high from clustered pointed bulbs (2' long); sepals oblong 

 (white), equalling the simple filaments; pod strongly 3-lobed. — Rich cool 

 woods, W. New England to Wisconsin, Kentucky, and southward in the Alle- 

 ghanics. July. 



* * Ovules and seeds mostly 2 in each cell : ovary crested with 6 teeth at the summit : 



leaves long and narrow. 

 -i- Umbel bearing only flowers and ripening pods. 



2. A. cernmiin, Roth. (Wild Onion.) Scape naked, angular (1°- 2° 

 high), often nodding at the apex, bearing a loose or drooping many-flowered umbel; 

 leaves linear, sharply keeled (1° long) ; sepals oblong-ovate, acute (rose-color), 

 shorter than the simple slender filaments. — Steep banks, W. New York to Wis- 

 consin and southward. Aug. 



3. A. Stelhitlttn, Nutt. Scape terete, slender, bearing an erect umbel; 

 leaves flat ; sepals equalling the stamens : otherwise resembling the last, but usu- 

 ally not so tall ; the pod more crested. — Rocky slopes, Illinois [Engelmann), 

 and northwestward. 



