828 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



PART III. 



CHAP. VIII. 



Floricullural Catalogue, Herbaceous Plants. 



6220. A floricultural catalogue, as copious as that which we have given of culinary plants 

 and fruits, would greatly exceed our limits. Plants grown for ornament are so numerous, 

 that we cannot particularise separately the culture of each individual species ; but, with 

 the exception of some of the more choice sorts, as the florists' flowers, &c., must collect 

 them in groups, and detail a mode of culture applicable to the whole group. We shall 

 first commence with herbaceous flowers, and these we shall arrange as florists', or select 

 flowers, border-flowers, and herbaceous plants for particular purposes. 



SECT. I. Florists', or Select Flowers. 



6221. Florists'flowers are so called as being " flowers" by way of eminence, and be- 

 cause the principal sorts of them for a long time almost exclusively engaged the attention 

 of the flower-gardener. The Dutch, in this, as in most other departments of gardening, 

 were the first to bring it into notice, and more particularly by the great excellence to which 

 they attained in the culture of florists' bulbs. In the culture of that tribe, they still excel ; 

 but die fibrous-rooted flowers, as the carnation, auricula, &c. ; and the tuberous-rooted 

 kinds, as the dahlia, pa?ony, &c. are brought to a higher degree of perfection in Britain 

 than any where else. Ornamental flowers, like culinary vegetables which have been 

 long and highly cultivated, acquire a magnitude, succulence, and conformation of parts 

 which render them widely different from what they are in their natural state. This takes 

 place both in double flowers, that is, when the petals of the corolla are increased in num- 

 ber, or by the transformation of other parts of the flower into petals ; and also in single 

 flowers, or those in which the petals do not exceed the common number. A flower so 

 changed by cultivation, can no more be compared to the blossom of the same species in 

 its wild state, than a headed cabbage or a broccoli can be compared to the wild cabbage 

 of our sea-shores. Hence have been formed, by the common consent of florists, what 

 are called canons of criticism, by which to estimate the properties of new varieties of 

 established sorts of florists' flowers. To the hyacinth, tulip, auricula, and a few other 

 sorts, particular canons are adapted ; but the merits of a number of other select 

 flowers, double and single, are only to be judged of by general rules, such as fulness 

 of floral leaves, roundness of outline, brilliancy and distinctness of color, &c. Under 

 each species we shall give the established criterion, or canon, as far as generally agreed 

 on. We shall take the plants of this section in the order of bulbous, tuberous, ramose, 

 and fibrous rooted flowers. 



SUBSECT. I. Hyacinth. Hyacinthus Orientalis, L. (Sot. Mag. 937.) Hcxandria 

 Monogi/nia, L. and Asphodeletc, B. P. Jacinte, Fr. ; Hyacinthe, Ger. ; and 

 Giadnto, Ital. (fig. 589.) 



6222. The bulb of the hyacinth is tunicated, 

 the leaves broad and green, from the centre of 

 which arises a scape, with a spike of flowers, 

 pointing in all directions, and by which it is 

 known, at first sight, from Hyacinthus nonscrip- 

 tus, L. (Scilla nonscripla, W.), in which the 

 scape is drooping, and the flowers all turned to 

 one side. It is a native of the Levant, and 

 abundant about Aleppo and Bagdat, where it 

 flowers in February ; here it flowers in March 

 and April. It was cultivated by Gerrard in 

 1596 ; but had, doubtless, long before been im- 

 proved by the Dutch, who have added greatly to 

 the strength and beauty of the plant, and produced 

 almost innumerable varieties. 



6'223. Varieties. Gerrard mentions the single and double 

 blue, tlie purple, and the white. Parkinson, in 1629, enu- 

 merates eight sorts. Miller says, the Haerlem gardeners 

 distinguish near 2000 sorts, and generally publish cata- 

 logues of them from year to year. At present, the taste for this flower being considerably abated, 

 the Dutch and English catalogues contain only a few hundred sorts. Mason's catalogue for 1820, 

 contains three hundred sorts with names. These names are quite arbitrary, being given by the 

 grower after himself or some public character ; and therefore they are here omitted. They are arranged 

 as double blues, whites, reds, and yellows, and single sorts of the same colors ; the blues and reds arc the 

 most numerous ; the yellow, those of which there is least variety. ^)nly single hyacinths were at first 

 cultivated ; but about the beginning of the last century attention was paid to double flowers by Peter 

 Voerhelm, whose first double flower was named Mary, and is now lost ; but his third flower, the King qf 

 Great Britain, which is now looked upon as the oldest double hyacinth, was greatly preferred to all the 

 flowers known, and the price of it was then above 1000 florins, or 100/. sterling. Up to the middle of last 



