218 ENGLISH BO 1 ANY. 



no one else has been able to find it, and it is too conspicuous a plant 

 to be overlooked. 



Channel Islands. Perennial. Early Summer. 



Bulb flowering when about the size of a black currant, and rarely 

 larger than a cherry, deeply buried, producing numerous bulbules at 

 the base, some of which are sessile, some stalked. These bulbules, as 

 far as I have observed, never produce leaves till the succeeding year, 

 when tliey have become quite detached from the parent bulb ; but Pro- 

 fessor Babington, in " English Botany," describes the rootstock as 

 " supporting a small cluster of white subglobose bulbs, about as lai'ge 

 as hazel-nuts, with a few stalked offsets of similar shape ;" and M. Gre- 

 nier, in the " Flore de France," says, " Bulbes souvent fascicul^.es." 

 Leaves solitary on the barren bulbs, 2 to 4 at the base of the flower- 

 ing stems, about 1 foot long by i inch broad, often rolled up at the 

 apex, unless protected from frost during the winter, at the beginning 

 of which they appear above ground; before the fruit is ripe they 

 are completely decayed. Scape 9 to 18 inches high, slightly arching 

 while m flower, but with the apex lying on the ground in fruit, 

 with 3 sharp angles. Pedicels exceeding the perianth and equal to 

 the scape, enlarged at the apex. Flowers 3 to 12, hanging to one 

 side. Perianth segments -| inch long, pure white, with a bright green 

 midrib running nearly to the apex. Stamens about half as long as 

 the perianth segments ; anthers yellow. Capsule about the size of a 

 small pea. Seeds rather large for the genus ; the cotyledon remain- 

 ing within the testa in germination, so that the first leaf comes up 

 quite straight, not with a hook at the top as in all the preceding 

 species. 



I cultivated this plant for many years in the north suburbs of 

 London, and found the leaves were often injured by frost; but the 

 bulbs were never pi'evented fi-om flowering, and the seed ripened very 

 freely. 



Triquetrous Garlic, 

 French, Ail trigone. 



SPECIES VIII.-ALLIUM URSIWUM. Linn. 



Plate MDXL. 



EeicTi. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. X. Tab. DVH. Fig. 1109 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1340. 



Bulbs attached to a very short rhizome, aggregated in twos or 

 threes or solitary, each consisting of a single narrowly oblong-fusiform 

 compressed offset, at one side of the flowerstalk ; the barren bulbs 

 with a single leaf, the fertile \vith 2 or 3 ; coats thin, white, the 

 outermost one split into fibres ; bulbules none. Petioles free except 

 at the very base (where that of the outer leaf sheaths that of the 



