XVII.— RAMSON. 
Allium ursinum Linne. 
I T lias been truly said of this species that, if we could only divest it of its evil 
smell, it would rank among the most attractive of our British plants. Its leaves 
are very similar to those of the Lily-of-the-valley, and its starry flowers are of the 
purest white ; but it cannot be gathered, and it often so carpets the ground in oak- 
woods on a moist clayey soil that one cannot avoid stepping upon it and bringing 
out its fetid odour. 
The rank pungent taste and smell that pervade the stems and leaves of all the 
species of the large genus Allium result from a volatile essential oil, which is rich in 
sulphur and apparently occurs also in at least one member of the Family Crucifer <e. 
This probably gives to the various esculents of the group — onions, leeks, garlic, chives, 
shallots, etc. — some slight medicinal value in addition to their merely appetising 
action as flavouring. Many of them have been in cultivation from at least 3000 b.c., 
so that it is doubtful if they are known in a truly wild state ; and we read not only 
of their having formed the daily food of the labourer in Ancient Egypt, but of their 
having in that country received almost divine honours. Popular as these strong 
flavours are, especially among the southern Latin races, it would seem that persons 
of refined taste have always held aloof from them, from Horace to Mahomet. 
According to Mohammedan legend : — 
“When Satan stepped out from the Garden of Eden after the Fall, Garlic sprang up from the spot where he placed his left 
foot, and Onions from that which he touched with his right foot, on which account, perhaps, Mahomet always fainted at the 
sight of either.” 
There are about 250 species in the genus, all of them natives of the North 
Temperate Zone ; and as all of them are bulbous plants they are especially 
characteristic in most cases of dry and warm soils. It is not without significance 
in this connection that, while many of the species have the familiar centric and 
glaucous leaves characteristic of xerophytes, this species, which inhabits moist shady 
situations, has the broad, flat, sub-erect leaves which are common to several other 
plants growing in similar habitats. 
The bulbs of Allium ursinum are slender and oblong and have a fibrous 
white outer coat. From them rise naked triangular stems, their bases sheathed by 
those of the stalks of two leaves. These leaf-stalks are from two to four inches 
long, while the blades of the leaves are twice as much. 
The inflorescence, although umbellate, is cymose, central flowers opening 
first ; but the way in which it is rendered more conspicuous by all the 
flowers being brought to one level is well exemplified in this species. The 
flower-head is enclosed in two ovate-acuminate spathes, each about an inch 
in length ; but there are none of the little bulbils among the flowers which 
occur in several related species. The six narrow-pointed perianth-leaves spread 
