1869 
_* HYACINTHUS spicatus. 
Spike-flowered Hyacinth. 
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Nat. ord. LILIACE&. 
HYACINTHUS.—Suprà, vol. 5. fol. 398. 
H, spicatus; corollis campanulatis semisexfidis spicatis, staminibus membra- 
naceis, Smith prodr. fl. Gr. 1. 237. 
Folia linearia, debilia, humifusa, 6 poll. circiter longa, letê viridia. 
Scapus erectus, nudus, 2 poll. longus, spicam gerens brevem densam subova- 
tam8-9-floram. Bractee membranacee, diaphane, cuique flori due,inequales, 
opposite, semisagittate, subdentate. -Perianthium campanulatum, semisex- 
Jidum, laciniis. patentibus, apice revolutis, lacteis, per axin ceruleis. Fila- 
menta membranacea, 3-dentata, dente medio antherifero, inter se et cum 
tubo perianthii connata. Anthere atrocerulee sessiles in fauce tubi. Ova- 
rium subrotundum, ovulis aliquot teretibus a placenta centrali radiantibus. 
Ripe seeds of this plant were gathered in April, 1826, 
in the island of Zante, by H. F. Talbot, Esq. and were 
raised in his garden at Lacock Abbey, Wilts, whence a 
vum and specimen were communicated to me in February 
ast. 
* "YaxiwSoc, a name adopted from the ancient Greeks, who applied it to the 
flower supposed to have sprung from the blood of Hyacinthus, the favourite of 
Apollo, when accidentally slain, Great differences have arisen amongst commen- 
tators concerning the plant of the ancients, which we cannot presume to settle, 
but there seems no paramount authority for the present application. of the name 
in question. — Smith. Linnzus supposes it to have been the wild Larkspur, 
Sprengel the common Gladiolus or Cornflag, Martyn and Fée the Martagon 
Lily, while others have endeavoured to shew that the Hyacinths of the Greeks 
were the same as the Vaccinia nigra of Virgil, or the bilberrie s of the English, 
the Vaccinium Myrtillus of Botanists. 
