156 THE FLORA OF THE ALPS 



1 6. SCILLA, L. 



Flowers blue or rarely pink, few, in a short raceme, on 

 a short leafless scape springing from a small bulb ; sepals 

 and petals distinct, spreading ; filaments flattened ; seed- 

 vessel a 3-celled few-seeded capsule. 



5. bifolia, L. (PI. 115); flowers 2-5 on erect flower- 

 stalks, bracts o, stem 4-8 in., glabrous, leaves 2, lanceo- 

 late ; woods and orchards, frequent. 6\ italica, L. ; 

 flowers more numerous, each subtended by two linear- 

 lanceolate bracts, stem 8-12 in., leaves 2-5, linear-lan- 

 ceolate ; rare ; Bern, Valais, Dauphiny. 6\ verna y Huds., 

 Squill; raceme very short, few-flowered, each flower 

 subtended by one linear-lanceolate bract, stem 8-12 in., 

 leaves numerous, broadly lanceolate, recurved ; high 

 pastures; Pyrenees. 



Our English Blue-bell or Wild Hyacinth (Scilla nutans, 

 Sm., Agraphis nutans, Lk.) occurs at low elevations in 

 the Pyrenees, but is entirely absent from Switzerland. 



17. MUSCARI, Tourn. 



Flowers very small, blue, globose, in a dense raceme 

 on a leafless scape springing from a small bulb; 

 perianth-leaves all united below ; stamens attached to 

 the middle of the corolla-tube, filaments very short. Not 

 alpine. 



M. comosum, Mill., Grape-Hyacinth ; racemes at first 

 dense, afterwards much elongated, flower -stalks hori- 

 zontal, longer than the flower, many of the flowers often 

 sterile, stem 12-18 in., leaves channelled; grassy slopes; 

 Southern and Western Switzerland, Pyrenees. M. botry- 



