THE WEEDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Wild Onion or Sweet-scented Garlic (Allium jragrans Vent.). 

 (LiLiACE^E; Lily Family.) 



I do not know who will step forward and claim the honour of the introduc- 

 tion of this neat little, white-flowering liliaceous plant, which blooms 

 regularly in a number of places in the coast districts every November. It 

 was originally introduced into the State as an ornamental plant, and so, if 

 it could be kept within bounds, it still would be, but where it has broken 

 bounds it becomes a serious pest. To give an idea of its seriousness, there 

 is no doubt that it is the most formidable weed in the Botanic Gardens at 

 Sydney, being even worse than Nut-grass (Cyperus rotundas}. I suppose 

 I am within the mark when I say it costs 100 a year to keep it in check in 

 that one establishment, which, at 4 per cent., represents a capital sum of 

 2,500. This estimate was originally made in 1897, twenty years ago, arid 

 although we have battled with it in a crowded garden, amongst so many 

 subjects which cannot be removed, the figures are probably true now, in view 

 of the fact that the area of the Botanic Gardens has greatly increased in the 

 interval. It is more insidious than the Nut-grass, because it is more brittle. 

 It seems as if a perfect plant grows from every fragment left in the ground. 

 I direct attention to it in the most serious manner. 



Vernacular Names. It is commonly known as " Onion " or " Wild 

 Onion " about Sydney. " Sweet-scented Garlic " is a name sometimes given 

 to it, because it is allied to garlic, while the flowers are slightly perfumed. 

 It is not to be confused with Bulbine l>ulbosa, the well-known " Wild 

 Onion," although in grassland, before flowering, the plants are not very 

 dissimilar. 



Botanical Name. Allium, Latin for garlic; stated to be derived from a 

 Celtic root all, hot or pungent; jragrans, Latin adjective, meaning fragrant 

 or perfumed. 



Botanical Description. 

 Leaves a foot long, weak, diffuse, glaucous, linear, channelled, obtuse, and 



twisted at the end. 

 Scape smooth, erect, round, a little longer than the leaves, glaucous, with a 



little red at the base. 

 Umbel. As many as sixteen-flowered in some umbels, with a short, scari- 



ous, two-leaved spathe. 

 Pedicels long, slender, rigid. 

 Flowers very fragrant, six-cleft, turbinate, with white, spreading, blunt, 



equal, concave segments, and a green tube. 

 Stamens (six) nearly the length of the perianth, erect, inserted into the 



mouth of the tube. 



Filaments linear lanceolate, white, green at base. 

 Pollen yellow. Ovary cylindrical, six-ribbed, very smooth. 

 Style the length of stamens. Stigma small, simple, depressed. 

 The above description is taken from Edwards' Botanical Register, vol. xi, 

 p. 898, Alium fragrans, var. nepalense, except that the number of flowers in the 

 umbel of our plants is as many as sixteen in contradistinction to six in the 

 typical variety. 



How to get rid of it. In an ordinary garden-border perhaps the best 

 method is to dig each plant up very gingerly, so as to be careful to take up 

 every fragment. In lawns (where it spreads like infection) frequent mow- 

 ing is the only cure, while on hard ground it should be shaved off close to 

 the ground as often as it makes its appearance, with the result that it will 

 eventually die out; but above all be on the look-out for it, and tackle it on 

 its first appearance on a lawn or in a garden. Endeavour to recognise it, 



