270 FLORA HISTORICA. 



as it has been found growing naturally in such 

 various parts of England, and more particularly as 

 it never appears to have been introduced as a plant 

 of luxury or medicine, we can have no hesitation in 

 pronouncing it indigenous to our soil. It has been 

 found in the closes about Streatham, in Surrey. 

 Stillingfleet observed it in Norfolk ; Relhan, in 

 Cambridgeshire ; Sibthorp, near Barton, and in 

 Christ-Church meadows, Oxfordshire ; Mr. Robson 

 says it is plentiful in a field near Knaresborough, 

 Yorkshire, and it has been found near Leeds in 

 the same county. The bulbs of these plants should 

 be placed in a light sandy soil, where they increase 

 rapidly by their viviparous nature, which renders it 

 necessary to thin them every second or third year ; 

 for although they have the best effect when grow- 

 in «• in large patches, yet, if suffered to remain 

 beyond that time, the bulbs impoverish each other, 

 and have only strength to throw up leaves. They 

 should be removed in the month of July or August, 

 which will enable them to become so fixed in the 

 ground as to flower freely in the following April or 

 May. This flower remains in perfection for about 

 fifteen days, during which time it never expands in 

 a wet or gloomy day, and even in the brightest 

 weather the flowers do not open until an hour before 

 noon ; and from this circumstance it is frequently 

 called Eleven-o'clock Lady. The petals close again 



