South Isles of Arran, and communicated it to the friend whose
name we wish it to bear, the name of Haller having been attached
to another species by Mr. Don, in Mem. Wern. Soc.
v. 6, published in 1832. We have had both Cornish and
Irish specimens in cultivation siniqe 1842, and we believe the
species distinct, although allied to A. Scorodoprasum, and still
more nearly to A. Ampeloprasum, (of which it is certainly
possible that it may be but a bulbiferous variety,) and in some
points to A. Hallerii, Don, and A. Porrum.
It is. a much larger plant than A. Scorodoprasum, the scape
being 4-6 feet high, and thick in proportion, from the size of a
swan-quill to that of the human thumb in the lower part, where
it is often compressed or obscurely angular; it tapers upward,
and is often much waved. The leaves are more numerous, 6-10,
of a greyer green, broader, sometimes 2 inches wide at the
base of the blade, which partially clasps the scape, more deeply
carinate, and gradually attenuated to the laterally compressed
apex. The spatha has a linear compressed point, sometimes
two inches long. It sometimes falls off, as the head expands,
in one inflated calyptriform piece, and sometimes splits into
two unequal pieces, which are often persistent. The flowers
are pale reddish-purple, about as large as in A. Scorodoprasum,
but more conical, their leaves but slightly expanding, and
rougher on the outside. The stamens overtop the perianth
by twice or thrice the length of the anthers, which are pale,
and often appear imperfect; the style is usually protruded beyond
them, and the stigma not incrassated, The united part
of the trifid filaments tapers a little from, the, base, and is
scarcely twice as long as the point that bears the anther. The
germen is longer than in A. Scorodoprasum, and the transverse
lines are nearer its base, and the portions below them more
deeply excavated. The head-bulbs are green or pale purplish,,
the largest scarcely smaller than a hazel-nut. Lengthened
stalks supporting small secondary heads are more generally
present, and sometimes occur of several inches long. The
bulbous base of the plant is very different, being of a globose
shape, with solid white bulbs (two in the specimens that we
have examined), seated upon the hard white crown of the root,
and inclosed within the striated filmy bases of the leaf-sheaths,
as large in the flowering season in full-sized plants as a walnut,
and increasing ultimately to twice the size, gibbous outwardly,
the inner side compressed and channeled, clasping the base of
the scape. These at length become separate by the decay of
the connecting root-stock, and from the centre of each arises
a plant for the ensuing year, the bulbous base of which is covered
with greyish ragged films, the attenuated remains of the
former bulb. There are also a few stipitate yellow-brown
offsets, flat on one side, rounded on the other. The keel of
the leaf-sheath varies in prominence. The incurved apex of
the young filament at its junction with the anther seems
peculiar.
In A. Ampeloprasum, which equals or exceeds A. Bating-
tonii in size, the structure of the bulb is the same, except that
we have found the inclosed bulbs three or four instead of two.
In the leaves and scape there is absolutely no difference. The
spatha we have not seen other than single, calyptriform, and
caducous. The flowers are rather larger and more open, less
rough on the outside, and their leaves subemarginate. They
form a lax round head, generally without bulbs, among their
long stalks; but Mr. Babington has seen bulbs, on wild plants
in Guernsey, about the size of a pea. The stamens are longer
in proportion to the perianth, the style shorter. The anthers
are larger and more yellow; the trifid filaments so deeply cut
that the united part is not, or scarcely, longer than the an-
theriferous point. The germen is more globular, the nectarial
projections are about its middle, and the spaces below less
deeply excavated.
A. Hallerii, Don (A. Ampeloprasum of the FI. Grceca) and
A. Porrum, both commonly cultivated under the name of
Bbeks, are mostly smaller plants, with compact round heads
of trigono-globose flowers, usually white, with green keels.
The stamens, even at an early stage, are recurved over and
between the leaves of the perianth, and exserted as far as the
division of the trifid filaments, the united part of which is
longer than the fertile point, and nearly parallel-sided. The
anthers, yellowish in A. Porrum, are purplish in A. Hallerii,
whence the whole head has a purple tinge. The lines of the
nectary are about the middle of the germen, and the spaces
below, especially in A. Porrum, scarcely more concave than
the furrowed portions above. The head-bulbs are generally
wanting, very small when present, in both. A. Hallerii agrees
with A. Babingtonii and A. Ampeloprasum in the structure of