THE HYACINTH. 43 



Endynrion nutans. The specific name nutans simply means 

 nodding- ; but it will be seen that very considerable difficulty 

 has been felt in determining- the genus, various writers, 

 according as they dwelt on one or other point of structure, 

 classifying- it differently. Linnaeus first called it Hyacin- 

 thus, and the specific name means not written on, a name 

 inexplicable without some key. The g-enus was named 

 after a certain classical bias of those days after the 

 youth Hyacinthus, who, being- killed by Apollo, was by 

 him chang-ed into an allied plant, whose leaves bore in 

 dark streaks the letters of his name ; and as this particular 

 species of the genus has no markings on its foliage, it 

 was, for the sake of distinction, called the non-scriptus, or 

 unwritten on. The generic name agraphis is of similar 

 significance, being compounded of two Greek words, mean- 

 ing not to mark. Scilla is derived from the Greek word 

 to injure, but we confess we are unable to see any especial 

 appropriateness, etymologically or botanically, in calling 

 our plant either Scilla or Endymion. It is the "fair- 

 hair'd hyacinth " of Ben Jonson, a name bearing allusion 

 to the myth already referred to. The hyacinth has very 

 long leaves, of a type known botanically as linear; these 

 all rise from the bulb, and from the midst of these and 

 over-topping them rises the stem that bears the flowers. 

 These blossoms are arranged in a long and curving line, 

 and vary considerably in number in various specimens ; 

 each has two small bracts at the base of the pedicel, or 

 short stem that unites it with the main stem. The flower 

 is a perianth, a term applied when the parts of the calyx 

 and the corolla are so similar in form and colour that little 

 or no difference is perceptible. 



The hyacinth is a plant of the woods and shady 



