^ Spring Flowering liulbs ^ 



They are natives of the Levant, Aleppo, Bagdad, etc., 

 and in their native haunts they flower in February. Phillips 

 in his Flora Historica suggests that they were introduced 

 early in Queen Elizabeth's reign, for in 1561 she enabled 

 Anthonie Jenkinson and others to visit Persia. The Dutch 

 took up the culture of hyacinths with almost as great en- 

 thusiasm as that of tulips. Phillips mentions a certain Peter 

 Voerhelm as the first to introduce the double hyacinths, 

 one of which he named The King of Great Britain. This 

 was early in the eighteenth century, and a bulb of this 

 novelty cost £100. There was in fact a hyacinth mania 

 as well as a tulip mania, and even in the early years of the 

 nineteenth century £10 was an ordinary price for a fine 

 bulb. 



Some of the muscari are in bloom as early as 

 February — Hyacinthus azureus for instance — but most 

 of them during April and May. One always remembers 

 Ruskin's description of the scent of the grape hyacinths — 

 j the grape hyacinth, which is in south France, as if a 

 cluster of grapes and a hive of honey had been distilled 

 and compressed together into one small boss of celled 

 and beaded blue.' Parkinson, who so frequently tells us 

 the names given by women to flowers, tells us that 

 ' English Gentlewomen call the white Grape-Flower 

 Pearles of Spain.' The most sweetly scented of the 

 muscari are the musk hyacinths, in bloom in April. They 

 prefer a rich soil. The little spikes of inconspicuous bells 

 both of the ordinary musk hyacinth and the large- 

 flowered variety are veritably a quintessence of honey 

 scent. A rare variety is Moschatum fiavum, which has 

 spikes of yellow bells. None of the muscari, alas ! take 

 really kindly to sandy soil. 



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