LILIACE-E. 213 



In dry grassy places and on the borders of fields, hedgebanks, wall- 

 tops, and rocks. Rather rare. Var. a I have from Devon, Somerset, 

 and Gloucester. Var. )3 from Yorkshire, Forfar, and Kincardme. One 

 or other of the forms has been recorded from Hants, Sussex, and 

 Kent, north to Kincardine, Forflir, Fife, and Cumberland ; but possibly 

 in some of these localities A. vineale has been mistaken for it, and in 

 Kincardineshii'e Dr. Dickie considers it an introduced plant. 



England, Scotland. Perennial. Late Summer, Autumn. 



Bulb flowering when about the size of a cherry-stone, and rarely 

 larger than a sloe, generally solitary, occasionally producing small 

 oftsets or bulbules at the base, enveloped in whitish coats, the outer 

 coat splitting into fibres especially at the base, and pale brown. 

 Leaves variable in breadth, and generally speaking the broader they 

 are, the more nearly parallel and the less separated are the upper and 

 lower paginfP ; but on cutting the leaf across isolated hollow canals 

 may be perceived even in the broadest and flattest-leaved forms; on 

 the underside there are prominent ribs which vary in number. The 

 spathe is remarkable among the British species for its 2 very long 

 foliaceous points, the longer one frequently 2 or 3 inches long, and 

 quite resembling the leaves, but narrower. The 2 points of the 

 spathe are united at the base, and sometimes the 2 valves of the 

 spathe each carry one of these leaflike points when they separate; 

 but it very frequently happens that the rapidly increasing size of the 

 head-bulbules ruptures the spathe in another direction than that of 

 the junction of the two leaves of which it is composed. The flowers 

 vary much in numl:)er, sometimes there are only 5 or 6, at other 

 times 30 or 40. The pedicels, wliich are very slender and erect in 

 bud, hang over when the flowers expand, so that the latter droop, but 

 they again become erect and stiff in fruit. Perianth about \ inch 

 long, forming a wider bell than in any of the preceding species; the 

 leaves of which it is composed are oblong, blunt, pale, suffused with 

 olive, with a dull red or dark olive midrib ; occasionally there is a 

 rosy tinge on the flowers, which deepens when they are dried. The 

 longer stamens are about equal to the perianth leaves, the yellow 

 anthers just appearing beyond them. The capsule has 3 compressed 

 keeled lobes enlarging upwards. The seeds are black and rugose, and 

 shaped like those of most of the British species. 



1 have cultivated for some years the narrow-leaved plant, from roots 

 sent me from Bristol from j\lr. T. B. Flower, and from Plymouth, 

 communicated by Mr. T. R. Archer Briggs, and beside these the broad- 

 leaved foi-m from Settle and Thirsk, from whence I have been favoured 

 with roots by ]\lr. J. Tathara and Mr. J. G. Baker ; and although I 

 was at first inclined to think they were distinct subspecies, I am now 

 convinced that they are merely varieties. All these four plants pass 

 into each other, and lie between two plants received through M. 



