Linnean System of Plants. 57 
one to every petal, and the flower has six petals. That ele- 
gant flower called the crown imperial is a foreign species of 
this genus. We have one British tulip; the common yel- 
low tulip is the only species native of this country. W hen 
double, it has somewhat the appearance of a large yellow 
rose, and is very magnificent. ‘The splendid tulips usually 
cultivated in gardens are importations from the East, deriv- 
ing their name from the Turkish turban (called fudzpan) 
which they are supposed to resemble. From the East, too, 
we have the hyacinth: one, called the starch hyacinth, is the 
produce of this country ; its flowers smell like wet starch, and 
are considered very oppressive. ‘The harebell (formerly 
called the English hyacinth, but latterly removed to the genus 
Scilla) contains a great quantity of starch in the juices ‘of its 
roots. 
Asparagus is a native plant, growing on the sea-coast ; but 
the wild and the cultivated asparagus would scarcely be 
recognised as the same species, culture having increased it to six 
or eight times its original magnitude. The sprouting shoots of 
this plant, when grown in a garden, grace the most luxurious 
tables; but the same po ‘of the wild plant would not be 
worth the gathering. Some foreign species of asparagus are 
armed mie thorns or prickles: the Cape asparagus, ‘Thun- 
berg informs us, is called by the inhabitants of the country, 
waht en beetje (wait a bit), because its crooked thorns catch 
their clothes, and check them in passing; hence also the word 
asparagus itself, from a Greek word s signifying to lacerate. 
The lily of the valley, now so seldom met with, but always 
admired — 
“ Shading, like detected light, 
Its little green-tipt lamps of white,” — 
is one of four British species of Convallaria (a barbarous 
compound of Greek and Latin, equivalent to our English 
name): the others bear the name of Solomon’s seal; it is 
said, because a transverse section of the reots exhibits cha- 
racters resembling the impression of a seal. All the species 
are rare. Gerarde recommends the fresh root, bruised, for 
the cure of any “bruse, black or blue spots, gotten by fals, 
or women’s wilfulness in stumbling upon their hasty husbands’ 
fists.” 
Sweet flag (d’corus Calamus) is another rare plant, growing 
in watery places, and chiefly about the rivers in the county of 
Norfolk. It has been a custom from time immemorial, to 
strew it in the cathedral and some of the streets of Norwicl: 
on the mayor’s day, for the sake of the fragrance which it gives 
out when trodden upon. Of late vears, being less plentiful, 
