S C I 



SCO 



Tht second species has a scaly root like the 

 Lilv ; it is oblong- and yellow, vuy hke that of 

 N1 art agon: theleaw- are shaped like thoseofthe 

 White Lily, but are smaller: the s'talk is »l< 

 and rises a foot high ; it is terminated bj blue 

 flowers, which appear in June. It is a native 

 of Spain, Portugal, &ci 



The thinl has a roundish solid bulb, like that 

 of {he hyacinth : the leaves come out sparsedly, 

 and are very like those ol the English hare-bells' : 

 ■ in seven or eight inches high, terminated 

 by clustered flowers of a pale blue colour; at 

 first disposed m a sort of umbel or depressed 

 spike, but afterwards drawing up to a point and 

 foi nine- i conical corymb. 



The fourth species h;is a large solid root, 

 raised a little pyramidal in the middle, covered 

 with a brown cot, from this come out before 

 winter live or see n leaves, six or eight inches 

 long, of a lucid green, keeled, and spreading 

 almost flat on the irround : from the centre of 

 these come out one, two, or three scapes, 

 thick, succulent, six or eight inches high, ter- 

 minated by a conical corymb of flowers, upon 

 prcttv long pedicels. 



There are varieties with a deep blue, and with 

 a white flower ; it is often known by the name 

 of I [yacinth ot Peru. It is a native of Spain, Por- 

 tugal, and ISarbarv. 



The fifth has a large solid purplish root, from 

 which come oat five or six leave-. lying on the 

 ground, above a loot lone', and an inch broad, 

 keeled, channelled, and of a lucid green ; from 

 among these arise two, three, or tour pi rplish 

 stalks, eight or nine inches high, sustaining to- 

 wards the top live or six flowers, which come 

 out singly from the side; they are of a violet- 

 blue colour, anil appear in April. It is a native 

 of the Levant. 



In the sixth species the bulb is oblong, white, 

 whence come out five or six leaves, a tool long, 

 and halt" an inch broad, of a lucid green, and a 

 little keeled : scape nine or ten inches high, 

 firm, and sustaining many flowers at the top, 

 disposed in a loose panicle, each on a pretty 

 long pedicel which is erect, but the flower it- 

 self nods: the corolla is of a deep blue violet 

 colour. It is a native of Spain and Portugal,' 

 flowering in May. 



The seventh has the bulb ovate roundish, 

 coated, whitish : the leaves numerous, much 

 shorter than the scape, two or three inches long, 

 In" ir, obtuse, channelled, spreading, scape from 

 three or four to six inches in height, round, 

 upright, striated, below whitish green, above 

 purplish, appearing villose when magnified. 

 Sometimes there is a second scape : the flowers 

 six, ten, or even twenty in a corymb, which is 



soon tenj tit into a raceme. It is a na- 



tive of France, Spain, < 



It is observed that '• most old writers distin- 

 guish a larger and a smaller sort; but these diilcr 

 merelv in size.- and some have noticed a vanity 



w ith white flowers." 



Cu/titrc. — These plants may be increased by 

 offsets frflm the root-, and by seids, but the 

 li;st i» the better mode. 



The offsets may be taken off every other year, 

 and be planted out at the time the leaves and 

 sterns di cay. 



The seed should he sown in the autumn, on 

 light mould in shallow boxes or pans, in the 

 Same manner as in the Hyacinth, the same cir- 

 cumstances UL-'mg attended to in the culture. 

 The plants are long in flowering in this way, 

 except in the last species, which should have a 

 dry loamv soil. 



The first sort,asberng a native of the sea-shores, 

 cannot be well propagated in other situations, 

 as the plants are apt to be destroyed by the frosts 

 in winter, and to grow indifferently in the Bum- 

 mer season from the want of salt water. 



They afford variety in the beds and borders 

 of pleasure-grounds. 



S< ORPl&N SENNA. See Coronilla. 



SCORPI'URUS-, a genus containing hardy 

 herbaceous plants of the annual kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Difldi ! 

 Decatidria, and ranks m the natural order of 

 PapilionacetB or Legurninos(e. 



flu characters arc : that the calyx is a simple 

 umbel : perianth one-leatnl, erect, inflated, 

 verv slightly compressed, half-five cleft, acute: 

 teeth alii tl : the upper ones less divided: 



the corolla papilionaceous : banner roundish, 

 emarginate, reflexed, spreading : wings sub- 

 ovate, lobse, with a blunt appendix : keel half- 

 mooned, with the belly gibbous, acuminate, 

 erect, two-parted below : the stamina have 

 diadelphous lilamcnts, (simple and nine-cleft,) 

 ascending: anthers small: the pistillum is art 

 oblong germ, cylindrical, a little reflexed : style 

 bent-in upwards : stigma a terminating point : 

 the pericarpium is an oblong legume, subcylin- 

 drical, coriaceous, striated, rugged, revolute, 

 divided internally into several transverse cell<, 

 obscurely knobbed externally by the contraction 

 of the joints : the seeds are solitary, roundish. 



The species cultivated are : \. S. vermiculath, 

 Common Caterpillar; 2. S. muricata, Two- 

 flowered Caterpillar ; 3. St sulcata, Furrowed 

 Caterpillar. 



The first has the stalks herbaceous, trailing, above 

 a foot long, lying on the ground, and having at 

 each joint a spatulatc leaf on a long footstalk : 

 the peduncles axillary, sustaining at the top one 



