Order n 7 . Liliacece. 347 



H. makes the Bombay plant var. Javanica. Anyone would recognize 

 this pretty climber as a near relation of the cultivated asparagus, A. 

 officinalis, haliyun. That is a native of England, though not often 

 found wild there. The young shoots, much enlarged by cultivation, 

 are the edible part. " The asparagus, with its elegant stem and silky 

 chevelnre, all shining with the evening dew, seemed like a forest of 

 Liliputian fir-trees covered with silver gauze." G. Sand. 



* A. Jacquemontii, tall, much-branched, branches spreading, angled, 

 ribbed and grooved, segments of the branchlets 2 to 5-divided, 3-sided, 

 pointed; flowers solitary or in pairs on a short peduncle. Found by 

 Jacquemont between Poona and Karli. No other authority ; not in 

 D. or G. 



3. CHLOROPHYTUM. 



1. C. breviscapum. Tubers oblong from the fibrous roots, 

 leaves flat sword-shaped, narrower at the base, margins wavy ; 

 flowers in a close raceme on a short round scape, white, petals 

 much recurved, anthers long yellow, bracts long pointed, one to 

 each pair of flowers. 



D. had this at Mai wan, I at Dapoli. Otherwise H. ascribes it only 

 to the foot of the Sikkim Himalayas. 



* Q. glaucum, leaves glaucous, slightly folded, half the length of the 

 scape, which is from one to two feet high, and scaly ; flowers appa- 

 rently much as the last. On the Ghauts (D.}> rather rare. No other 

 hab. or authority. * C. tuber osum (C . anthericoideum, D.), scape 2 feet 

 high, longer than the sword-shaped slightly folded leaves, flowers 

 large. District of Malwan (D.). Pretty common through Central 

 and S. India (H.). E. says that the flowers are pure white, and like 

 those of a snowdrop. 



" Chaste snowdrop, venturous harbinger of spring, 



And pensive monitor of fleeting years." Wordsworth. 



D.'s Phalangium tuberosum, which he calls very common in both 

 Konkans and the Deccan, but which I have seen only at Eutnagherry, 

 is apparently not mentioned by H. It may be included in the last, as 

 D. says it is very like it. The leaves are waved on the margin, scape 

 round, flowers small white in racemes or panicles. * C. orchidastrum 

 (C. Nimmonii, D.), three feet high, leaves long, attenuated towards 

 the base, scape round, branched, flowers twin, distant drooping white. 

 Malwan, and Ghauts opposite Bombay (D.). * C. laxum (C. parvi- 

 florum, D.), 8 to 10 inches high, leaves erect grass-like, folded, longer 

 than the scape ; flowers minute solitary or twin, white, anthers green, 

 bracts lanceolate. Rocky places near the sea in the Malwan district 

 (D.). 



To this tribe belong the Asphodels. 



4. ALLIUM. Onion. 



There are a number of wild onions in the Himalayas, but 



