200 FAMILIAR FLOWERS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 



lijacintlis {Muscari hotnjoides) in reddish color in- 

 stead of blue. But the two flowers are related — 

 they belong to the Lily faniilj'. The grape-hyacinth 

 has escaped from the garden to the field ; it bears a 

 dense cluster of tiny blue-violet flowers in early 

 spring. Our common hyacinth (//. orientalis\ which 

 comes from the Levant, is likewise a family con- 

 nection. It is too well known to need any descrip- 

 tion here. The hyacinth presents yellow, red, and 

 blue under modified conditions ; it is characteristic 

 of spring, but is more of a hothouse than a garden 

 flower. It seems a pity that the hyacinth and the 

 crocus, the latter a flower of easy cultivation and re- 

 splendent in color, should be less popular in the gar- 

 den than the showy Lady AVashington geraniums 

 (Pelargoniums) of the summer season ; but such 

 seems to be the case. The Lady Washington gera- 

 niums, I might add (the name is applied without 

 much restriction to the flowering geraniums), are 

 really those varieties with shrubby stems known as 

 P. cucullatum (cowled P.), P. cordatnm (heart-leaved 

 P.), and P. angulosum (maple-leaved P.), whose flow- 

 ers sometimes Tneasure two inches across. 



