164 ENGLISH BOT^VNy. 



with pink, the segments frequently with a green spot close to the 

 apex. 



The name of this genus is derived from the Greek Xtucoc, white, and 'iov, a violet. 



SPECIES I.— LEUCOIUM ^STIVUM. Linn. 



Plate MDV. 



Beich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. IX. Tab. CCCLXTT. Fig. 805. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 3230. 



Leaves broadly linear-lorate, nearly flat, gi*een, not glaucous, ap- 

 pearing in winter before the flowers. Scape stout, ancipitate. Spathe 

 1-valved, entire at the apex, nearly as long as the longest pedicels. 

 Flowers 2 to 6. Perianth segments rhombic-oval, connivent into a 

 wide bellshaped funnel. Style clavate-cylindrical, with a conical apex. 

 Seeds soft, white, suborbicular, without a prominent caruncule. 



In wet meadows. Apparently native by the Thames, where it has 

 been reported from the neighbourhood of Heading, the Isle of Dogs, 

 and on the Essex shore opposite Woolwich, and at the south end 

 of Dagenham Breach; I have seen it plentifully between the em- 

 bankment and the river below Greenwich, opposite BlackwaU, on 

 the ground now occupied by the works of the Blakeley Gun Company, 

 and behind the butts at Plumstead. In the old " Botanist's Guide," 

 it is said to be " a troublesome weed in pastures at Little Stoneham," 

 Suff'olk; and in the same work it is reported to occur in a moist 

 meadow at Upton, and in a peat-field at Dorney, Buckinghamshire. 

 It was formerly found by the Avon near Stratford, and the banks of 

 the Isis near Oxford. Its occurrence in Dorsetshire rests on old 

 authority, and probably L. vemum may have been mistaken for it in 

 that county. 



England. Perennial. Early Summer 



Bulb flowering when about the size of a nutmeg, with a whitish 

 covering. Leaves and scape enclosed by a few scarious sheaths, 

 appearing in the beginning of winter, linear-lorate, slightly channelled, 

 straight, shining, green, |- to 1 inch wide when full grown. Scape 

 about as long as the leaves when in flower, 9 to 18 inches high, hollow, 

 two-edged. Spathe at first subherbaceous, afterwards scarious, with a 

 green point. Flowers 3 to 6, expanding in succession, erect in bud, 

 drooping when expanded ; the pedicels very short at first, afterwards 

 much longer and drooping. Perianth segments about f inch long, 

 rliombic-oval, acuminated into a small obtuse point, white, with conco- 

 lorous veins, and a green spot immediately below the apex both without 

 and withm ; when in flower the segments are connivent into a wide beU- 



