DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW AND RARE INDIAN PLANTS. 165 
singulis 2; capsula loculicide dehiscens, seminibus 2—3; {esta corrugata et minutis- 
sime punctulata. 
4 MiLULA spicata Prain, l. с. Herba bulbo elongato dimidio inferiore squamis (foliorum 
“ veterum reliquiis) fibrosis vestito radicibus numerosis ; foliis lineari-lanceolatis seapum 
“ fistulosum bulbo duplo longiorem aequantibus excedentibusue ; spica cylindrica bractea 
* basali spathacea ovato-acuminata inclusa, floribus viridi-rubescentibus parvulis plurimis 
* eampanulatis, segmentis perianthii aequalibus margine undulato-fimbriatis ; staminibus 
* in seriebus duabus exterioribus 3 carpellis alternantibus filamentis dimidio inferiore 
* expansis petaloideis, interioribus 3  carpellis oppositis paullo brevioribus filamentis 
* prorsus filiformibus, antheribus versatilibus omnibus perfectis; ovario subgloboso ovulis 
“ad angulum loculi interiorem parum supra basin affixis; capsula globosa ovulis in 
* loculo quoque semper 1 nonnunquam ambobus abortis; seminibus nigris. 
“Та HIMALAYA ORIENTALI: Chumbi, apud Do-tho, Kingui mercenar, ! 
* Bulbus ‘prasinus? 4—7 cm. longus; squame fibrose 25—835 cm.; radices 
4—5 em.; folia viridia 10—15 cm. longa, hec 1—5 cm. lata; scapus viridis liber 
% 6—9 ст. longus, 1—] em. crassus; spica 2—5 em. longa, 1 сш, diam.; bractea З cm. 
“longa hee 2 cm. lata; flosculi 21 mm. lati porianthio 35 mm. filamentis 4—5 mm. 
* longis; ovarium 1} mm. diam. stylo 2 mm. longo stigmate minimo; capsula 3 mm. 
“lata tenuis; semina 23 mm. longa 1} mm. diam." 
“This plant is one of the most interesting which the botanical investigation of the Eastern Hima- 
laya, conducted during the past twenty years ou behalf of the Government of Bengal by the Superin- 
tendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, has revealed to science. It was obtained by one of 
the native collectors of that garden іп Chumbi, the valley which lies immediately to the east of Sikkim. 
Politically, this valley is Tibetan; geographically, it forms part of the Himalayan region, since the stream 
that drains it finds its way southwards through Bhutan and Assam to the Brahmaputra, Its Flora, 
however, indicates that, though so near to Sikkim, it enjoys a comparatively dry climate. This is due 
to the fact that, in place of iying open, as does the basin of the Tista (which practically constitutes 
Sikkim) to the moisture-laden currents that sweep up from the sea of Bengal to precipitate on the 
Sikkim Himalaya the heavy rainfall which characterises this area, the Chumbi Valley has a narrow 
southern outlet, and the lofty ridges which enclose it practically deprive these currents of their moisture 
ere they reach the depression beyond. 
“The facies of this singalar plant, which bears out to some extent the comparative dryness of its 
habitat, is so completely that of аа Allium that at first sight one feels inclined, in spite of its spicate 
inflorescence and its solitary bract, to treat it as the type of a somewhat aberrant section in that compre- 
hensive genus. Both characters, repugnant though they be to our generic conception of Allium, might be 
looked upon as incidental. Already Allium includes species with heads of sessile florets, while in some 
other genera the passage from a head to a spike is of the simplest ;* the difference, 222 between 
one bract and two, among plants like the АШее, where the bracteal variation is admittedly 2— о, is 
no more than arithmetical. But when we find these characters associated with such д essential 
ones as a distinctly gamophyllous perianth and a decidedly 2-seriate androecium, it becomes at least in- 
advisable to further expand the limits of a genus already so unwieldy as Alium. A secondary reason 
for excluling the plant from Allium is that the specimens show no trace of the garlio odour so charac- 
teristic, even in dried examples, of most if not of all the species of that genus. 
“Тһе localisation of the genus does not appear to be difficult; an overwhelming majority of charac- 
ters indicate its tribal position to be among the Ае, (tribe XII of Liliacee in Bentham and Hooker’s 
Genera Plantarum). It its true that none of the Allice hitherto described have a spicate inflorescence or 
a solitary bract. But it must be remembered that both characters may be merely incidental; the main 
ыы 
* The genus Acacia, for example, amongst the Leguminosa ; с/т. Prain in Journal of the Bombay Natl, Histy, Society, V, 165 (1890), 
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