JMuscari comomm, the well-known Tassel-Hyacinth, but is 

 veiy distinct from Scilla romana of which it has been 

 deemed a variety by Lamarck; there the corolla is six- 

 parted, here the divisions are exceedingly shallow. Clusius, 

 whose excellent description we have extracted entire, tells 

 us, that roots of our plant were received at Vienna, from 

 Constantinople, in 1578. It is now known to be indige- 

 nous of Caucasian Tartary, the Ukraine, and Puglia. We 

 have seen a specimen, in the Banksian Herbarium, that 

 was gathered, by the late Dr. Patrick Russell, in Syria. 



Muscari is distinguished from Hyacinthus by the con- 

 striction of the throat of the corolla, and the six very shallow 

 and sometimes nearly obsolete lobules forming the mouth 

 of the same. 



Bulb tunicated, with brownish integuments. Leaves 

 4-6, 6-9 inches long, lorate, tapered, obtuse, villously 

 edged, especially towards the bottom. Scape round, a foot 

 or more in height: raceme terminal, subpyramidal, loosely 

 many-flowered; peduncles purplish, divaricate, at first only 

 one or two inches long, ultimately acquiring double that 

 length or more, stiff. Corolla rather smaller than that of 

 the Tassel -Hyacinth, at first white, then passing into a dull 

 brownish purple colour before it decays. In its native place 

 the scapes, with their peduncles, become quite dry and rigid 

 in the autumn, and are blown about the fields by the winds 

 that prevail at that season. Filaments wholly adnate to the 

 corolla: anthers purple. Style the length of the stamens; 

 stigma trigonal, slightly pubescent. Capsule oblong, tri- 

 gonal: seeds black, roundish. 



