160 Bulb or Onion Crops 



compound bulb, and the leaves die down in summer, leaving 

 no trace above ground : flowers seldom produced. — Southern 

 Europe. 



6. A. Porrum, Linn. Sp. PI. 295. (A. Ampeloprasum, Linn., 

 var. Porrum, Gay, Ann. Sci. Nat. 3d ser. vili, 218. 1847.) 

 Leek. Stout vigorous glabrous green very slightly glaucous 

 biennial: bulb single, not much broader than the stout neck 

 and gradually passing into it, with numerous stout roots be- 

 neath it: leaves equitant, keeled, 2 to 3 ft. long and at the 

 base 1% to 2 in. wide, very long-pointed : Bower-stem slender, 

 pithy and not fistulose, 2-3 ft., leafy below, the bulb more 

 evident : flowers borne in a terminal umbellate head, sub- 

 tended by a single spathe-bract, color pinkish, % in. long, 

 much exceeded by the pedicels ; segments lance-ovate, acute, the 

 midnerve usually colored ; anthers exserted, the filaments of 

 3 of them very broad and with a slender branch on either 

 side near the top exceeding the anther ; ovary conic, the style 

 arising within the notched top : fruit dehiscing into 3 parts : 

 seeds black, about 1/6 in. long, onion-like, weighing 2 to 4 mg. 

 — Not certainly known wild ; considered to be an ameliorated 

 form of A. Ampeloprasum, of Europe and western Asia. 



A related plant is A. Scorodoprasum, Linn., the rocam- 

 bole, sometimes cultivated for uses like garlic, native in 

 Europe ; it is a lesser plant than the leek, with smaller umbels 

 which bear bulbels, the stamens not exserted; the ovoid bulb 

 bears stalked offsets or bulblets. 



