210 ENGLISH BOTAXr. 



SPECIES IV.— ALLIUM VINE ALE. iiVm. 



Plate MDXXXIV. 



Bekl. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. X. Tab. CCCCXC. Fig. 1075. 

 Bilht, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 3222. 



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

 offset on one side of the flowering stem, and producing a few half- 

 ovate trigonous shortly stalked white bulbules about the size of cur- 

 rants, which are acuminated at the base, shortly acuminate, beaked 

 at the apex. Leaves fistulose, all sheathing the stem from the 

 base to about the middle or a little above it, terete, more or less 

 channelled or flattened above, dull green, glaucous, with numerous 

 nearly smooth ribs. Scape cylindrical. Spathe 1-valved, scarious, 

 subglobular, abruptly acuminated into a rather long conical subher- 

 baceous beak usually exceeding the rest of the spathe. Flowers 

 usually few, in a lax hemispherical umbel, almost always inter- 

 mingled with, and often entirely replaced by head-bulbules. Perianth 

 leaves comiivent, with a smooth keel. Stamens slightly exserted, 

 scarcely one-fourth longer than the perianth; the 3 interior fila- 

 ments 3-cuspidate, with the antheriferous cusp nearly as long as the 

 undivided part, and the lateral cusps shorter than the central one. 

 Capsule ovate-subglobose, bluntly trigonous. Seeds 2 in each cell. 

 Head-bulbules oblong-elliptical, acuminated, often incurved, about the 

 size of barleycorns. 



Yar. a, capsuliferum. 



Flowers -without head-bulbules. Perianth segments more or less 

 stained with rose-colour. 



Var. 3, hulbiferum. 

 Plate MDXXXIV. 

 Flowers Intel-mixed with head-bulbules. Perianth white tinged 

 with olive ; the midrib alone rose-colour. 



Var. 7, compactum. 

 A. compactum, Thuill. Fl. Par. p. 1G7. 



Umbels without flowers, but mth very numerous head-bulbules: 

 frequently there are 2 or 3 heads formed solely of bulbules growing 

 together at the apex of the stem. 



Var. a in dry sand ; very rare ; I have it from St. Aubin's 

 Bay, Jersey, collected by the Rev, W. W. Newbould in 1842, and 

 ao-ain by Mr. H. C. Watson in 1852; I have also a single specimen 



