568 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



by Apollo, and changed to this flower. The 

 root is a tunicated bulb, the leaves are broad and 

 green ; the flower-stalk rises from the centre, the 

 corolla is funnel-shaped, and half cleft into six 

 portions, the flowers point in all directions 

 around the scape, which is erect. It appears to 

 have been first cultivated, as a garden flower, by 

 the Dutch, most probably about the beginning of 

 the sixteenth century, soon after the revival of 

 commerce in the west of Europe, when that enter- 

 prising nation began to trade on the eastern 

 shores of the Mediterranean and the Archipelago. 

 In Britain it was cultivated by Gerard in 1696. 

 The hyacinth is one of the most esteemed of 

 garden flowers. It is not only graceful in form, 

 but brilliant, beautiful, and varied in colour, and 

 possesses an odour little inferior to the carna- 

 tion. It bears the climate of Britain well, and 

 is of very easy culture. In its native coun- 

 try it flowers in February, here in March and 

 April. 



There are innumerable varieties of this flower. 

 Gerard mentions the single and double blue, the 

 purple, and the white. In 1629, Parkinson 

 enumerates eight varieties, while the Haerlem 

 gardeners distinguish not less than 2,000, and 

 generally publish catalogues of them from year 

 to year. As the taste or rage for this flower has 

 at present abated, the Dutch and English cata- 

 logues contain only a few hundred varieties with 

 names. They are arranged as double blues, 

 whites, reds, and yellows, and single varieties of 

 the same colour. The blue and red colours are 

 the most common, the yellow most rare. At 

 first the single hyacinth only was cultivated, but 

 about the beginning of the last century attention 

 was paid to double flowers by Peter Voerhelm, 

 whose first double flower he called Mary, but 

 which is now lost ; his third flower he called 

 the king of Great Britain, which is now looked 

 upon as the oldest double hyacinth. It was 

 held in such esteem at one time, that the usual 

 price for a single bulb was 1,000 florins, or £100 

 sterling. Up to the middle of last century the 

 greatest attention was paid at Haerlem to rais- 

 ing new sorts of double flowers, and for a parti- 

 cular root £200 have not unfrequently been 

 given. Since that period, however, the taste for 

 this and other bulbs has considerably declined, 

 80 that at present there are few sorts that exceed 

 £10; the average price is from one to ten shill- 

 ings a bulb for the fine sorts, and what are 

 called the common mixtures are sold from £2 

 to £3 a liundred. To preserve these varieties 

 requires much care and management. Under 

 bad treatment a variety degenerates in two or 

 three years; in Holland some have been preserved 

 nearly a century. 



The criterion or qualities requisite in a fine 

 double plant are as follows. The stem should 

 be strong, tall, and erect, supporting the numer- 



ous large bells, each supported by a short and 

 strong peduncle, or foot-stalk in a horizontal 

 position, so that the whole may have a compact 

 pyramidal form with tlie crown or uppermost 

 flower pei-fectly erect. The flowers sliould be 

 large and perfectly double, that is, well filled 

 with broad bold petals appearing to the eye, 

 rather convex than flat or hollow. They should 

 occupy about one half the length of the stem. 

 The colour should be clear and bright, whether 

 plain red, white, or blue, or variously intermixed 

 and diversified, the latter giving additional lustre 

 and elegance to this beautiful flower. Strong 

 bright colours are, in general, preferred to such 

 as are pale. 



Hyacinths are propagated by seed, in order 

 to obtain new varieties, and by offsets for 

 continuing approved sorts. The seed should be 

 selected from the best specimens of plants, such 

 as have strong straight stems, and a regular well 

 formed pyramid of bells, not perfectly single, 

 but rather approaching to double. The seed 

 should not be gathered tiU it is perfectly black. 

 It is to be sown in the latter end of October, oi 

 the beginning of March, about half an inch 

 below the surface of the soil, in a deep box filled 

 with good garden mould mixed with sand. It 

 requires no watering, and nothing but to be kept 

 clear of weeds and frost till it has remained in 

 the ground two years. On the approach of 

 winter it must then have an additional stratum 

 of the compost placed upon it about half an inch 

 thick, and in the third year, in the month of 

 July, the roots may be taken up, dried, and 

 treated in the same manner as large bulbs or 

 off^sets. Some of the roots will flower the 

 fourth year, one half of them the fifth, and the 

 whole in the sixth. The cultivator generally 

 thinks himself fortunate if one half of the plants 

 that first appeared are in existence at this 

 period, and if he can at least find one flower in 

 five hundred deserving a name or place in a 

 curious collection, he may rest perfectly content. 

 Offsets are to be separated from the parent bulb, 

 and planted out separately in the beginning of 

 October, in an open space, in rows of about two 

 inches deep, upon a bed raised about six or eight 

 inches above the common level. The soil should 

 be sandy and well pulverized ; it is also advisable 

 to elevate the bed somewhat in tlie middle so 

 as to throw off^ the rain. The surface of the 

 bed should be strewed occasionally, and kept free 

 from weeds, and protected from severe frosts. 

 The offsets will blossom weakly the second 

 year, but in the third tolerably strong. 



Of the full grown roots, those wliich have 

 attained the ago of four or five years bloom 

 stronger in this country than any other. After 

 this they generally decline, either by dividing 

 into offsets, or diminishing in size and strength, 

 but in Holland, perhaps owing to the peculiari- 



