

with them might refer to either East or West Indies. But 



in the history of the plants of Mexico, compiled from ob- 

 servations made on the spot by Hernandez, the plant is 

 said in precise words " to be produced in the temperate 

 and cool districts (of Mexico), and to be a kind of 

 Narcissus, not known in the old world. 55 Here we can 

 hardly avoid inferring, from the first part of the sentence, 

 that it is meant to be recorded as indigenous; although we 

 may he inclined to dispute the authority of a naturalist of 

 two hundred years ago, who presumes to decide a plant's 

 not being native of any other part of the globe than Ame- 

 rica. Father Camell, again, whose account of the vege- 

 tables found in Luzon (one of the Philippine isles) has been 

 added by Kay to his own work, tells us unequivocally that 

 the plant had been imported by the Spaniards from Mexico, 

 by whom it was called Vara de S. Jose, Saint Joseph's wand, 

 and that it was known by the name of the Mexican Aspho- 

 del. The Flora peruviana, on the other hand, enumerates it 

 merely as a garden-plant in Peru ; altho' that work is cited 

 by Monsieur Redoute, as well as the learned writer of the 

 botanical articles in Rees's Cyclopedia, as enumerating it 

 for one of the wild plants of that country. 



The appellation it has obtained with us of " The Tube- 

 rose," evidently originates in its having been distinguished 

 by all the older botanists from the bulbous-rooted Hyacinth, 

 by the description of the " Hyacinth with a tuberous root," 

 llyacinthus tuberosus, or tuberosd radice. The present ge- 

 neric name is sometimes written Polyanthes ; but since it 

 is admitted to be compounded of noXis and *y$og, alluding to 

 its being a favourite in towns, and not of TroKvg and ayQog, 

 we shall scarcely be thought pedantic in saying, that the 

 spelling- at the head of this article is right. 



The roots are annually imported by the Italian warehouse- 

 men from Italy and Portugal, and sometimes from the 

 warmer parts of North America. They arrive early in the 

 spring, and if then planted, by a slight assistance from 

 the hotbed, flower in the open air about September. The 

 main root perishes after flowering, and is replaced by a 

 brood of offsets, which become flower- bearers in their turn. 

 The double variety is known to have been raised from seed 

 a Mous r . de la Cour, at Leyden, about 60 or 70 years ago, 

 Cultivated in England bv Parkinson in 1629. 



a A flower dissected, to show the stamens and pistil. 



