SIS S I u 



celled, two-valvcd: valves Jn opening straightish, The species are : i. S. Bermudiana, fris-Icaved 

 partition a little longer than the- valves: the Sisyrinchium j 9. S. anceps, Narrow •leaved Si- 



scc-tls very many, Binall. svnnehium. 



The - is S. Nasturtium, Common The lir-t has a fibrous root, from which arise 



Water Ci ss, boom stiff sword-shaped leaves, lour or tne 



It has perennial roots, consisting of long inches long and halt an inch broad] of a dark 



white fibres, the lowermost fixed in the soil, the green colour: from am ids these comes out the 



rest suspended in the water: the stems spread- stalk (scape) six inches high ; it is com 



ing, declining or floating, angular, branched, and has two borders or wings running the 



leafy: (he leaves alternate, pinnate, somewhat whole length, and three or I 



lvrate, the terminating and upper leaflets being leaves embracing it ; these grow erect, and 



the largest : all the leaflets roundish, more or hollowed like the keel of a boat: the stalk is 



! heart-shaped, smooth, shining, waved or terminated by a cluster of six or seven flowers, 

 toothed, frequently tinged with a purplish on short peduncles, and enclosed in a two- 

 brown hue: the flowers white, in a corvmb, leaved, keel-shaped sheathj before they open ; 

 soon lengthened out into a spike : the pods they are of a deep blue colour with yellow bot- 

 shortish, on horizontal pedicels, but the pods toms, which, when fully expanded, are an inch 

 themselves recurved upwards : the stigmas over. It is a native of Bermuda. 

 nearly sessile : but according to Curtis, the The second species has a perennial librous 

 root is annual. Withering marks it as bien- root, from which arise many very narrow spear- 

 nial. It is a native of Europe, Asia, See. shaped leaves, about three inches long, 



Culture. — This may be effected by parting the scarcely an eighth of an inch broad, of a i 

 roots, or by seed. In the first method, while green colour 1 : the stalks about three inches 

 the plants are young, a quantity of slips should high, very slender, compressed and bordered, 

 be made with root-tibres to them, and be planted having short, narrow, sword-shaped, embracing 

 out immediately in a shallow, trickling, watery leaves: they are terminated by two small pale- 

 situation, when they will readily strike roots, blue flowers, inclosed in a two-leaved sheath, 

 seed, and increase themselves. upon longer peduncles than those of the first 



The seed should be collected during the sum- sort, flowering about the same time. It is a 



mer season, and sown in the same places 5 or, native of Virginia, 



which is better, the plants, with the ripened It is observed, that the leaves, stalks, and 



seeds upon them, be thrown into them, where flowers of the lirst sort are three times as large 



they will strike root, and shed their seeds for as in the second, and the sheath incloses six or 



future increase. seven flowers; whereas the second has rarely 



These plants are in much esteem as winter and more than two, and these expand only for a 



spring sallad herbs. short time in the morning, while in the former 



SISYRINCHIUM, a genus containing plants they continue open the whole day, 

 of the flowery perennial kind. Cull ine. — These plants may be increased by 



It belongs to the class and order Mnuaihlpkia seeds and parting the roots : in the former me- 



Triandiia, and ranks in the natural order of thod the seeds of the lirst sort should be sown 



Ensutcp. in the autumn as soon as they become ripe, on 



The characters are : that the calyx is a com- a border which has an eastern aspect, in drills 



mon ancipital spathe, two-leaved : valves com- at three or four inches distance, covering them 



pressed, acuminate: proper several, lanceolate, about half an inch with tine mould : they 



concave, obtuse, one-flowered : the corolla one* should afterwards be kept clean from weeds 



petalled, superior, six parted : segments obovate with care. They succeed best in a loamy soil in 



with a point, from erect spreading: three outer a shady situation, and where the ground has not 



alternate, a little wider : the stamina have three been manured. 



filaments, united into a subtriquetrous tube In the latter sort the seeds should be sown in 



shorter than the corolla, distinct at the top : pots, in order that they may be protected in the 



anthers bifid below, fastened by the hack : the gTcen-hottse. 



pistilluin is an obovate inferior germ : style " The first affords ornament in the large open 



three-sided, length of the tube : stigmas three, borders and clumps, and the latter among other 



thickish, awl-shaped at the top, erect : the peri- green-house plant-:. 



carpium is an obovate capsule, round' d, three- STUM, a genus containing a plant of the 



sided, three celled, three- valved ; with the par- bardy, herbaceous, esculent kind. 

 litions contrary : the seeds several, globular. It belongs to the class and order Pentc 



