IxXXVl GARDEN BOTANY. 



M. moschatum lias dull purplish ovate-oblong flowers, musky-scented, 

 of no beauty ; but a monstrous variety, later in the season, produces from the 

 scape a large panicled mass of abortive, contorted, bright blue branchlets, of a 

 striking and handsome appearance. 



6. Hyacinthus orientalis, Hyacinth, most familiar in cultivation ; 

 the fragrant flowers, originally blue, have sported into many colors, are single, 

 double, &c. 



7. Agapanthus unibellatUS. A showy house-plant, from the Cape of 

 Good Hope ; the tall scape bearing an umbel of pretty large blue flowers, the 

 six divisions as long as the tube and widely spreading. 



8. Funkia. — The blue and white Day Lilies, so called, are very different 

 'from Hemerocallis, having long-petioled leaves, with an ovate or cordate blade 

 and a midrib, from which most of the ribs or main nerves spring (these con- 

 nected by some netted veins) ; the flowers numerous in a raceme, nodding or 

 drooping ; stamens on the receptacle ; seeds winged and flat. 



P. subeordata is the species with long, white, and tubular-funnel-form 

 flowers. 



P. ovata, with smaller, more nodding, blue or violet flowers, abruptly 

 expanded above the narrow tube. 



9. Hemerocallis flava, Yellow Day-Lily. Less large than H.fulva 

 (described in Man. p. 468) and not so common in country gardens ; flowers 

 light yellow, the inner divisions acute. 



10. Convallaria majalis, Lily-of-the- Valley. Described in Man. p. 

 467, because wild in the Alleghany Mountains ; but students ordinarily will 

 meet with it only in gardens, where it everywhere abounds. 



11. Asparagus officinalis, Garden Asparagus, having run wild in a 

 few places, is described in Man. p. 466. 



12 Myrsipnyllum asparagoides is a rather common, small, climbing 

 plant of house and conservatory culture, with slender angled branches, and 

 small flowers like those of Asparagus ; the leaves bright green, narrowly 

 ovate, acute, often obscurelv heart-shaped at the base, nearly sessile, commonly 

 curved, many-nerved, each" proceeding from the axil of a little scale which 

 represents the true leaf; the apparent leaves being (here and in Asparagus) 

 of the nature of branchlets. 



Order MELAX3THACEJE. Colchicum Family. 



Manual, p. 472 — The only cultivated exotic of this group to be noticed is 



1. Colchicum autumnale, Fall Colchicum. Flower purple, some- 

 times white or variegated, of 6 similar divisions on a long and slender tube 

 which rises from the corm underground, like a Crocus, in autumn, without 

 green leaves, which appear the next spring. The free ovary, 3 separate styles, 

 and 6 stamens, distinguish Colchicum from Crocus. 



Order COMMELYNACE^l. Spiderwort Family. 



Manual, p. 485. — The common cultivated Spiderworts, &c. are natives of the 

 United States, and are described in the Manual. 



