720 



H Y A 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



H Y A 



necessary to promote their seeding;. When the seeds are 

 quite ripe, cut off the vessels, and preserve them with the 

 seeds therein until the season for sowing. Observe, however, 

 that after these flowers have produced seeds, they seldom 

 flower so well again, at least not in two years after; so that 

 the best method to obtain good seeds is to plant new roots 

 every year for that purpose. Although these roots are by 

 most persons taken up every year, yet, where the ground 

 has been well prepared, they may remain two years, and will 

 increase more in the second year than the first: but the 

 flowers are certainly more liable to degenerate ; therefore 

 those who cultivate them for sale take up their roots annually, 

 when they are large and saleable, but leave the offsets and 

 small roots two years in the ground. There are some persons 

 who suffer their Hyacinth roots to remain three or four years 

 unremoved, which causes a much greater increase of roots 

 than when they are annually taken up; but the roots by this 

 great increase are frequently degenerated, so as to produce 

 single flowers. Single Hyacinths may be planted a week or 

 two sooner than the double ones, and will bloom two or three 

 weeks earlier; upon these the cultivator must depend for seed, 

 for the double ones rarely produce any. Save your seed from 

 those plants which have strong straight stems, and a regular 

 well-formed pyramid of flowers which are semi-double : do 

 not gather it till it is perfectly black, when the pericarp will 

 appear yellow on the outside, and begin to open ; then cut 

 off the stem, and place it in a dry airy cool place, till the 

 time of sowing, which may be either the end of October, the 

 beginning of March, or in August; which last Mr. Miller 

 recommends. Some say, that if the bulbs of double Hya- 

 cinths be planted sooner than the middle of October, they 

 will be apt to come up during the winter, and thus be injured 

 by severe frosts ; and if it be deferred later than the middle 

 of November, the bulbs will begin to put out fibres, which 

 will weaken them. Such bulbs as are Tour or five years old 

 flower strongest in England, and after this gradually decline : 

 but in Holland, the same bulb will produce bloom twelve or 

 thirteen years together, nor is it ever known to die through 

 mere age. Persons who are nice about their flowers, erect a 

 covering over them during the flowering time, to keep off the 

 rain without excluding the light, and to keep off cold winds, 

 which are frequently very injurious at the early season in 

 which these delicate flowers are in bloom. This awning 

 should be of coarse linen, on a frame of wood, made to roll 

 up easily, that in mild cloudy weather the flowers may have 

 the full benefit of the sun and air : and it should not continue 

 on more than a fortnight or three weeks, for it weakens the 

 bulbs. Florists differ as to the proportion of the materials 

 of the compost in which the bulbs are to be planted. Some, 

 instead of half fresh earth, recommend only one-third, with 

 the same quantity of rough sea or river sand, and the remain- 

 ing part to be one-fourth old rotten cow-dung and the rest 

 the earth of decayed leaves. Some put in tanners' bark, rotten 

 wood, or old saw-dust: others reprobate tan, as retaining an 

 astringency which is pernicious to delicate bulbous flowers. In 

 using fresh earth from a pasture, it is necessary to guard against 

 the wire-worm, by minutely inspecting the heap as it is turned 

 over, and picking out that destructive reptile, which is of a 

 yellow colour and about an inch long. The beds should be 

 in a dry airy part of the garden, with a southern exposure, 

 sheltered from the north and east, six feet distant at least 

 from the fence, and made sloping a little towards the sun. 

 The Hyacinth succeeds best in situations near the sea. In 

 more inland parts, the florist must annually introduce fresh 

 bulbs to supply deficiencies, by keeping a reserve in deep 

 narrow pots, to fill up the vacancies in his beds. 



8. Hyacinthus Corymbosus. Corollas funnel-form ; raceme 

 erect ; leaves linear, very narrow, commonly three, shorter than 

 a finger's length ; scape shorter than the leaves, terminated by 

 a corymb of purple flowers, cloven half way down ; style the 

 length of the corolla. Observed in pastures near the Cape. 



9. Hyacinthus Romanus ; Roman Grape Hyacinth. Co- 

 rollas bell-shaped, half six-cleft, in racemes ; stamina mem- 

 branaceous ; leaves very long, the width of the finger ; raceme 

 long, round, with very numerous flowers, which are white, 

 and cut beyond the middle; antherae blue. Found in the 

 fields near Rome. 



10. Hyacinthus Muscari; Musk Hyacinth. Corollas ovate, 

 all unequal, with one bracte under the pedicel, and another 

 above it ; roots large, oval, bulboos ; from them arise several 

 leaves eight or nine inches long, and half an inch broad ; out 

 of the middle of these springs the stalk, six inches high, which 

 sustains the flowers; it is naked below, but the upper parts 

 are garnished with small flowers growing in a spike having 

 ovate pitcher-shaped petals, which are reflexed at their brim, 

 and are of an ash-coloured purple, or obsolete faded colour, 

 but have an agreeable musky scent, and, when in some quan- 

 tity, will perfume the air to a considerable distance. It flow- 

 ers in April, and ripens seed in July. Of this there are two 

 varieties ; one with the same coloured, but larger flowers, on 

 the lower part of the spike, while the flowers on the upper 

 part are yellow, and emit a very grateful odour. Another, 

 with very large yellow flowers, sells for a guinea a root among 

 the Dutch florists. Native of the Levant. This, with the 

 9th, and 13th species, will thrive in the open air, and require 

 no other culture but to take up the roots every second or third 



ear, to separate the bulbs ; for some of them multiply fast, 

 and when the bunches of bulbs become large, they do not 

 flower so strong. They ought to be taken up soon after their 

 stalks and leaves decay, and spread on a mat in a dry shady 

 room for a fortnight, to dry ; after which they may be kept in 

 boxes till Michaelmas, when they may be planted in the bor- 

 der of the flower-garden, and treated in the same way as the 

 common Hyacinths. They are easily increased by offsets, 

 which they send out in plenty ; so that there is no occasion 

 to sow the seeds, unless it be to gain new varieties. 



11. Hyacinthus Convallarioides; Lily Hyacinth. Corollas 

 bell-shaped, ovate, pendulous ; scape filiform ; flowers with- 

 out leaves, yellow. Found by Thunberg at the Cape. 



12. Hyacinthus Monstrosus ; Feathered Hyacinth. Corol- 

 las subovate; root large, bulbous, producing several plain 

 leaves, a foot long, and half an inch broad ; flower-stalk a 

 foot and half high, naked at the bottom for about seven or 

 eight inches, above which the panicles of flowers begin and 

 terminate the stalks. The flowers stand upon peduncles, 

 which are more than an inch long, each sustaining three, 

 four, or five flowers, the petals of which are cut into slender 

 filamenta like hairs: they are of a purplish blue colour, and 

 having neither stamina nor germen, never produce seeds. 

 It flowers in May; and after the flowers are past, the stalks 

 and leaves decay to the root, and new ones arise in the 

 following spring. Native of the south of Europe. 



13. Hyacinthus Comosus; Purple Grape Hyacinth. Co- 

 rollas angular-cylindrical, the upper ones barren, on longer 

 pedicels; bractes small, acuminate; bulb as large as a mid- 

 dling-sized onion ; leaves five or six, a foot or eighteen inches 

 long; flower-stalks above a foot high, lower half naked, upper 

 half sustaining a loose raceme of flowers ; the lower flowers 

 are farther asunder, and upright before they expand, Imt 

 whilst they continue, and afterwards, stand out horizontally 

 on pedicels half an inch long; their colour is a yellowish 

 green, with blue or purple at the end; these are fertile. 



