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. viii, 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 to 2 in. wide, very long-pointed : flower-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. 



