LUAACEM. 205 



Ilead-bulbulcs very numei'ous, from the size of peas to that of small 

 hazel-nuts, forming a compact globular head, from which the pedicels 

 of the flowers project rather thinly ; these pedicels are often of un- 

 equal length, and sometimes proliferous. Flowers pale rose-coloured, 

 darker at the apex, with the midrib greenish. 



On rocky places and on hedgebanks. Var a naturalised on Steep 

 Holmes Island, in the estuary of the Severn. Var. 3 doubtfully wild 

 on ledges of rock below St. Peter's Barracks, Guernsey. Var. y doubt- 

 fully wild in orchards at Grade and Ruan j\Iinor, Cornwall; near 

 Little Bredy, Dorsetshire ; truly wild in several places in the Great Isle 

 of Arran, co. Galway; also "on Ulan Glas, opposite Roundstone " 

 (Professor Babington) ; "near Roundstone, sparingly" (Professor 

 OlUver).— Cyb. Hib. 



[England,] Ireland. Perennial. Late Summer, early Autumn. 



The Steep Holmes plant flowers when the bulb is about the size of 

 a greengage plum. At the time of flowering this bulb has on each 

 side of the flowering stem a large roundish-ovate compressed otfset, 

 one of which flowers the next year; besides this, there are usually 

 towards the base a number of subhemispheiical angular acuminated 

 shortly-stalked bulbules, which do not flower for several years after 

 their first appearance. According to Mr. Borrer, there are sometimes 

 three or four oti'sets in the bulb; but this I have never met with. 

 The coats of the bulb are white. The stem is about the thickness of 

 a man's finger at the base, and tapers upwards, attaining a height of 

 3 to 6 feet. Leaves distichous, all sheathing tlie stem so that it 

 appears to be leafy ; but, as is the case in all other species of the genus 

 which have apparently leafy stems, the leafsheaths spring from the 

 bulb, of which the bases of the leaves form coats; the lamina is 8 

 to 18 inches long by f to 1 inch or 1^ inch broad, folded so as to 

 foi-m a gutter along the midrib, keeled on the back, the keel and 

 margins rough with minute cartilaginous prickles ; the leaves appear 

 at the close of autumn and decay before the fruit is ripe. The s])atiie 

 is greenish -wliite, about the size of a small apricot, abruptly acumi- 

 nated into a compressed hornlike beak 1^ to 2 inches long and a little 

 turned over at the apex; the spathe splits round the base and is thrown 

 off as the pedicels lengthen. Pedicels very numerous, unequal, tlic 

 longest about 2 inches long, disposed so as to form a globose umbel. 

 Perianth leaves ovate-oblong, about \ inch long, Avhite, tinged with 

 pink towards the apex, scabrous on the keel and on the margins. 

 Anthers yellow. Capsules about the size of sweet-pea seeds, very 

 bluntly trigonous. Seeds shaped hke one of the divisions of an orange, 

 rough, black. 



Var. 3 difi'ers from the preceding solely in having numerous 

 bulbules at the base of the pedicels, which are compacted together 



