LILIACE.E. 207 



Shakespeare seems to favour tliis statement in liis conversation between Fluellcn 

 and Henry V. : — 



" If your majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden 

 •where Leeks did grow, wearing Leeks in their Monmouth caps ; which, your majesty 

 knows, to this hour is an honourable padge of the ser\-ice ; and I do believe, your 

 majesty takes no scorn to wear the Leek on Saint Tavy's Day. 

 "Kjng Henry. I wear it for a memorable honour; 

 For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman." 



There would, however, seem to be no reason for connecting the battle of Cressy 

 (fought on August 20) with St. David's Day; nor would the Welshmen have worn 

 leeks in their Monmouth caps unless the Leek had previously been considered the 

 national emblem. The Welsh ti-adition is, we believe, that in a great battle with the 

 Saxons, A.D. 519, the Welsh, who were victorious, had distinguished themselves by 

 wearing Leeks in their caps, being commanded to do so by Dewi, aftei-wards canonised 

 as St. David ; on which account the Leek was ever after worn on the day dedicated 

 to his memory. If this tradition were current in the days of the Black Prince, we 

 may well beHeve that his Welsh followers drew auguries of success from bein"- 

 stationed " in a garden where leeks did grow," and eagerly placed them in their caps, 

 even though St. David's day were past. 



SPECIES XL— ALLIUM SCORDOPRASUM. Linn. 



Plate MDXXXII. 



Beieh. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Holv. Vol. X. Tab. CCCCXC. Figs. 1073 and 1074. 



A. arenarimu, Linn. Sm. Engl. Fl. Vol. II. p. 134 (non Engl. Bot. Tab. 1358). 



Bulb at the time of flowering consisting of a single large dark 

 purple offset at one side of the flowe-ing stem (or rarely of 2, one on 

 each side of the stem), and producing a number of ovate-ovoid long- 

 stalked purple bulbules about the size of peppercorns, slightly acumi- 

 nated at each end. Leaves not fistulose, all sheathing the scape from 

 its base to about its middle, broadly linear, folded, glaucous, scabrous 

 on the edges and midrib, the apex hooded when young. Scape cylin- 

 drical. Spathe 2-valved ovate-ovoid, scarious, graduallj' acuminated 

 into a conical subherbaceous beak shorter than the spathe. Flowers in 

 a lax globose umbel, always intermixed with head-bulbules. Perianth 

 leaves connivent, with a subscabrous keel on the outside of the 3 e.\- 

 terior ones. Stamens subincluded, the 3 interior filaments 3-cuspidate, 

 with the antheriferous cusp about half as long as the undivided part, 



and the lateral cusps about as long as the latter. Capsule ? 



Head-bulbules always present, dark purple, ovate-subglobular. 



In sandy and gravelly pastures and thickets. Local. It occurs in 

 the counties of York, Lancaster, and thence north to Kirkcudbright 

 and Berwick-u})on-Tweed. It again occurs in the south of Life Iroia 

 Culross to Donibristle, and has been reported from Forfar and 

 Mora}', but from the latter county as an introdu cd plant. In 



