24 KEY AND FLORA 



I. AI/LIUM, Wild Onion 



Plants with the odor and taste of onion. Scape from a coated 

 bulb. Involucre with papery bracts. Pedicels not jointed 

 under the flowers. Perianth rose-color or white. Stamens 6, 

 with filaments broadening towards the base, attached to the 

 perianth. Ovules 2 in each cell of the ovary, rarely all ripen- 

 ing. (There are many species, difficult to determine. The 

 most common are given.) 



a. A. serra'tum Watson. Scape nearly a foot high. Perianth 

 dark rose-color, with divisions in 2 sets, dissimilar. Ovary with 

 wart-like crests at summit. Outer bulb coats marked with a horizontally 

 zigzag veining which tears readily along the veins. This is common 

 and abundant wherever found. 



b. A. unifo'lium Kellogg. Scape usually 2 ft. or more high. 

 Flowers pale rose-color or white, from 10 to 30 in the umbels. Ovary 

 smooth at summit. Bulb propagating by a side offshoot, the white outer 

 coats marked by a delicate, complicated veining. This grows in wet 

 places and generally has more than one leaf. 



c. A. acumina'tum Hook. CRIMSON-FLOWERED ONION. Scapes 

 4-6 in. high, from a bulb with outer coats, not fibrous, but marked 

 with hexagon^! or quadrangular venation. Leaves narrowly linear. 

 Bracts of the involucre 2. Flowers crimson, on pedicels nearly an 

 inch long, in erect umbels. Segments of the perianth recurved, with long, 

 pointed tips, the inner ones wavy and minutely serrate. Generally grow- 

 ing in adobe soil, blooming in spring and early summer. It is found 

 chiefly on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and 

 north to British Columbia. 



d. A. attenuifo'lium Kellogg. Scape slender, from 6 in. to more 

 than a foot high. Leaves narrow, becoming thread-like at tip. 

 Bracts of the umbel 2, short, acute. Umbel with many white flowers. 

 Segments of the perianth pointed, longer than the stamens. Ovary 

 tvith 6 crests at summit. Bulb coats often reddish, with a fine, wavy 

 veining. This is found in wet places in the Coast Mountains, in 

 the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and it extends into Oregon. 



e. A. falcifo'lium H. and A. Scape low, flat, 2-edged. Leaves 2, 

 flat, broad, sickle-shaped. Bracts 2. Flowers deep crimson, the seg- 

 ments of the perianth edged with minute, glandular teeth. Capsule 

 pointed with short, narrow crests. Bulb large and globular, the mark- 

 ings on the coats not distinctive. This is found in sandy or gravelly 

 places on the hills of the Coast Mountains, especially northward, 

 extending to Oregon. 



