GARDEN BOTANY. 



M. moschatum has dull purplish ovate-oblong flowers, musky-scented, 

 of no beauty ; but a monstrous variety, later in the season, produces from the 

 scape a large panic-led mass of abortive, contorted, bright blue branchlets. of a 

 striking and handsome appearance. 



6. Hyacinthus orientalis, HYACINTH, most familiar in cultivation ; 

 the fragrant flowers, originally blue, have sported into many colors, are single, 

 double, &c. 



7. Agapanthus umbellatus. A showy house-plant, from the Cape of 

 Good Hope ; the tall scape bearing an umbel of pretty large blue flowers, the 

 six divisions as long as the tube and widely spreading. 



8. Funkia. The blue and white DAY LILIES, so called, are very different 

 from Hemerocallis, having long-petioled leaves, with an ovate or cordate blade 

 and a midrib, from which most of the ribs or main nerves spring (these con- 

 nected by some netted veins) ; the flowers numerous in a raceme, nodding or 

 drooping ; stamens on the receptacle ; seeds winged and flat. 



F. SUbCOrdata is the species with long, white, and tubular-funnel-form 

 flowers. 



F. OVata, with smaller, more nodding, blue or violet flowers, abruptly 

 expanded above the narrow tube. 



9. Hemerocallis flava, YELLOW DAY-LILY. Less large than H.fulva 

 (described in Man. p 468) and not so common in country gardens ; flowers 

 light yellow, the inner divisions acute. 



10. Convallaria majalis, LILY-OF-THE- VALLEY. Described in Man. p. 

 467, because wild in the Alieghany Mountains ; but students ordinarily will 

 meet with it only in gardens, where it everywhere abounds. 



11. Asparagus officinalis, GARDEN ASPARAGUS, having run wild in a 

 few places, is described in Man. p. 466. 



12. Myrsiphyllum asparagoides is a rather common, small, climbing 

 plant, of house and conservatory culture, with slender angled branches, and 

 small flowers like those of Asparagus ; the leaves bright green, narrowlv 

 ovate, acute, often obscurely heart-shaped at the base, nearly sessile, commonly 

 curved, many-nerved, each proceeding from the axil of a little scale which 

 represents the true leaf; the apparent leaves being (here and in Asparagus) 

 of the nature of branchlets. 



ORDER MEL ANTH ACE-SI. COLCHICUM FAMILY. 

 Manual, p. 472. The only cultivated exotic of this group to be noticed is 



1. Colchicum autumnale, FALL COLCHICUM. Flower purple, some- 

 times white or variegated, of 6 similar divisions on a long and slender tube 

 which rises from the corm underground, like a Crocus, in autumn, without 

 green leaves, which appear the next spring. The free ovary, 3 separate styles, 

 and 6 stamens, distinguish Colchicum from Crocus. 



ORDER COMMEIiYNACE-ZE. SPIDERWORT FAMILY. 



Manual, p. 485. The common cultivated Spiderworts, &c. are natives of the 

 United States, and are described in the Manual. 



