ASPHODELUS.] LILIACEM. 265 



7. ASPHODELUS, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 332. 



Style obconic. Capsule ellipsoid, J-f in. long ; cells 6-9 seeded. 

 Seeds J in. long flattened, elliptic, black. 



Siwalik range (Stewart), also plentiful eastwards in the Sub-Himalayan 

 tracts of Pilibhit and N. Oudh. DISTRIB. : W. Himalaya up to 

 7,000 ft. ; salt range of Punjab, and south to Konkan ; also ID 

 Burma, and Behar and in Chota Nagpur, extending to Trop. Africa. 

 The bitter and nauseous bulbs are used as a substitute for the true 

 squill (U. maritima), also by weavers in N. India to give substance 

 to their thread. 



Annual or perennial herbs with slender fleshy root-fibres. Leaves 

 radical, linear, 3-quetrous or terete, fistular. Flowers racemose on 

 a simple or branched leafless scape. Perianth petaloid, marcescent ; 

 segments 6, free or shortly connate below. Stamens 6, hypogynous, 

 shorter than the perianth- lobes ; filaments dilated at the base and 

 embracing the ovary, the summit of the filament inserted in a pit 

 on the back of the connective, anthers versatile. Ovary 3-celled; 

 style filiform, stigma somewhat 3-lobed ; ovules 2, collateral 

 in each cell. Fruit a globose loculicidal capsule with rugose parti- 

 tions. Seeds usually solitary in each cell ; testa black, rugose, 

 albumen cartilaginous, embryo rather large. Species 6 or 7, in 

 S. Europe and eastward to India. 



A. tenuifolins, Cav. in Anal* Cienc. Nat. iii 9 46, t. 27, fig. 

 2 ; F. B. I. vi, 332 ; Watt E. D. ; Collett Fl Siml 524 ; Prain 

 Beng. PI 1076 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 770. A. clavatus, Roxb. Fl 

 Ind. ii, 148. A. fistulosus, Linn. Vern. Bokat-pidzi. 



Annual. Leaves 6-12 in. long, terete, acute, sheathing at the base 

 finely puberulous. Scapes several from the root, much branched 

 above, 1-2 ft. Flowers white, laxly racemose, solitary in each bract ; 

 pedicels -J in., jointed below the middle ; bracts J 5 in., broadly 

 ovate, boat-shaped, scarious, with a strong brownish keel. Perianth 

 J- in. long ; segments oblong, obtuse, with a brownish costa. Sta- 

 mens J in. long, acutely 3-gonous black. 



Abundant within the area as a weed of cultivation and often becoming 

 a peat. Flowers during the cold season. DISTRIB. : Plains of India 

 in fields, and extending westwards to the Canary Islands and the 

 Mediterranean region. The plant and seeds are sometimes eaten 

 in India by famine- stricken people. (See Agricultural Ledger, No. 

 7, cf. 1902, p. 155.) 



