=e . PLATE CCCLXXVII. 
ALLIUM CHAM #®-MOLY. 
The Dwarf Moly. 
-CLASS Vi. ORDER 1. 
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Six Chives. One Pointal. 
: ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Corota 6-partita, patens. Spatha multiflora. | Corotva 6-parted, expanding. Sheath many- 
Umbella congesta. Capsula supera. flowered. Umbel crowded. Capsule above. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER, &c. 
* Attium, scapo nudo subnullo, capsulis cer- } ALLium, with a naked very short stalk, 
nuis, foliis planis ciliatis, drooping capsules, and flat ciliated leaves. 
Axtium Chame-Moly. Willd. Sp. Pl. 2. 83.—Cavan. Ic. 3. 2. 4. t. W7. f. 42 
Descriptio. Radix butts parvulus. Folia circiter 4, cruciatim disticha, expansa, linearia, su- 
bulata, basin versus parum canaliculata, et subcarinata ; hirta, preecipue ad margines, unde ciliata. 
Flores umbellati subsessiles. Scapus brevissimus, reconditus, nudus, Spatha monophylla 
flora, membranacea, 3-cuspidata. Pedunculi perbreves, teretes, superne incrassati, post 
oe florescentiam cernui. Petala 6, lanceolato-linearia, obtusa, alba, costA utrinque virescente. Fi- 
lamenta 6, tenuissima, alba, petalis duplo breviora. Anthere lute. Germen superum, turbi- 
natum, 6-sulcatum superne umbilicatum. Stylus albus longitudine filamentorum, sed robustior, 
apice fureatus. Stigmata fere nulla. 
a ——— 
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 
1. The sheath. : 
2. A flower spread open, magnified. 
3. The seed-bud and pointal. 
4, The same magnified. 
- 
A.THovGH now an old inhabitant of the British gardens, Allium Chamz-Moly has ever been con- 
sidered as a rare and interesting one ; and is at present extremely scarce. It has several times been 
entirely lost to us, and again introduced from the south of Europe ; where it occurs spontaneously. 
In the Hortus Kewensis of Mr. Aiton, it is marked as a hardy species : perhaps inadvertently : 
because we never knew it survive a single winter in the open ground near London: notwithstanding 
our having repeatedly tried it, in situations by no means unfavourable : hence, possibly, its present 
rarity. : 
It is properly a hardy green-house plant : requires a light soil, and the treatment of an Ixia : increases 
both by offsets from the root, and by seeds: and flowers annually in the months of January and 
February. The leaves die down in April or May. In the structure of the flowers, but not bore 
spathe, it agrees with Allium gracile of this work, which is not the gracile of the Hortus Kewensis. 
The genus Allium is an extensive one; but the present is the least species in it, and possesses the 
shortest stalk. Cavanilles describes and figures the style as subulate and entire ; but in our plant that 
__ part is forked: and the spathe in his plant differs much from ours. 
