1869 



* HYACINTHUS spicatus. 



Spike-jiowered Hyacinth. 



HEXANDRIA MONOGYi^lA. 



Nat. ord. Liliace^. 



HYACINTH US. Suprd, vol. 5. fol. 398. 



H. spicatus ; coroUis campanulatis semisexfidis spicatis, staminibus membra- 

 naceis. Smith prodr.Ji. Gr. 1.237. 



Folia linearia, debilia, humifusa, 6 poll, circiter longa, Icete viridia. 

 Scapus erectus, nudus, 2 poll, longus, spicam gerens brevem densam subova- 

 tamS-9-Jioram. Bractese membranacece, diaphance, cuique fieri duce,inaquales, 

 opposifcE, semisagittatce, subdentatce. Perianthium campanulatum, semisex- 

 fidum, laciniis patentibus, apice revolutis, lacteis, per axin cceruleis. Fila- 

 menta membranacea, 3-dentata, dente medio antherifero, inter se et cum 

 tubo perianthii connata. Antherae atrocoerulecE sessiles in fauce tubi. Ova- 

 rium 5M6ro^MwrfM7rt, 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 

 drawing and specimen were communicated to me in February 

 last. 



* 'YafCivSoe, 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. Linnaeus supposes it to have been the wild Larkspur, 

 Sprengel the common Gladiolus or Cornjlag, Martyn and Fee 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 bilberries of the English, 

 the Vaccinium Myrtillus of Botanists. 



