E. NASIR

Allium carolinianum Illustration Credit: M.Y. Saleem

Perennial bulbous herbs with or without a rhizome. Scapigerous. Leaves mostly radical, cylindrical, semicylindrical, filiform to lanceolate or oval, fistular or not fistular; leaf bases sheathing. Inflorescence a cymose umbel, enclosed in a spathe when young. Tepals 6, in 2 whorls, 1-7-nerved, free or connate. Stamens 6, free or connate. Ovary superior, trilocular. Fruit capsular, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds compressed to subglobose.

A family of 30 genera and about 700 species. Represented in Pakistan by one genus, Allium. Most workers include the family Alliaceae in Liliaceae or some in Amaryllidaceae but it is better placed separately.

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the United States Department of Agriculture for financing this research under P.L. 480. and to the Directors of the following herbaria for the use of the facilities and for allowing the author to work in the herbaria: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K), British Museum, Natural History (BM), Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (E) and Natural History Museum, Vienna (W). Thanks are also due to Dr. Per Wendelbo, Messrs. B.L. Burtt, I.C. Hedge and Miss J. Lamond for going through the manuscript and offering valuable suggestions. We are grateful to Dr. Wendelbo for the latin diagnosis of the new species.

Lower Taxon

• Allium Linn.