350 Floriculiural and Botanical NoticcSj 



(Scilla pra^eox W. is figured in the Flower-Garden for May, t. 141., from 

 the rich collection of hardy bulbs possessed by A. H. Haworth, Esq., who 

 received a bulb of the «5cilla prae'cox, about four years ago, from the bo- 

 tanic garden at Bury St. Edmunds, under the name of *Sciila bifolia gigan- 

 tea ; a name by which the plant has been sent out from that garden to the 

 garden of the London Horticultural Society and to other places. It is 

 every way larger than iStilla bifolia cagrulea itself; and this is the readiest 

 distinction between them. It probably exists in other gardens, confounded 

 with tfcilla bifolia caerulea, as it did in the Bury St. Edmunds one, until 

 observed by the very discriminating eye of one of the supporters of that 

 garden, the Rev. George Reading Leathes. 



CCXLVIL Asphodeleai. 



*1064a CAMA'SSIA Lindl. (Quamash or Camass, native name in N.W.America.) 6.1. Asphodilecs. l-~ 

 esculenta Lindl. esculent tf A or l|jl D.P Columbia 1827. O p i3ot. reg. 1436 



Professor Lindley quotes from Pursh as follows: — "This plant is called 

 quamash by the native Indians ; and the bulbs are carefully collected by 

 them, and baked between hot stones, when they assume the appearance 

 of baked pears, and are of an agreeable taste. They form a great part of 

 their winter stores." This fact it has been usual to attach to the iScilla 

 esculenta, well figured in the Botanical Magazine, t. 1574.; but Professor 

 Lindley remarks, that the Camdssia esculenta " is the real quamass or 

 camass root of the North-west American Indians, we know upon the 

 authority of Mr. Douglas, who found it in the greatest profusion on 

 alluvial, grassy, and partly overflowed soils on the Columbia, in 1825. 

 Professor Lindley thus contrasts >Sfcilla esculenta and Camdssia esculenta : 

 — " In iSfcilla esculenta, the leaves are glaucous ; the flowers pale blue, and 

 much smaller ; the segments have a uniform direction and expansion ; the 

 stamens are shorter, and spread equally round the pistillum, which is 

 straight. In Camdssia esculenta, the leaves are bright green; the flowers 

 deep purple; live of the segments have a direction upwards, while the 

 sixth is bent down ; the stamens are ascending, and the style is declinate. 

 No doubt, therefore, can exist of their specific, or even of their generic, 

 difference." The flowers of this very beautiful plant are almost 2 in. 

 in diameter, and were produced, for the first time in Britain, in Juty, 

 1831, in the Horticultural Society's garden. Professor Lindley " scarcely 

 remembers to have seen a more strikingly handsome bulbous plant : no art 

 can do justice to the rich colour of the flower, which, although of the most 

 intense purple, yet is so relieved by the satiny sparkling lustre of the 

 cuticle, as to have quite a light and elegant effect. It has been hitherto 

 cultivated in a peat border, under a north wall, where it grows freely, 

 proving perfectly hardy ; a few seeds were prpduced, and it is probable 

 that when the bulbs are stronger [they are now about the size of a filbert], 

 it will increase readily by seeds. Mr. Douglas also met with a white 

 variety, or rather perhaps species, of which specimens are in his herba- 

 rium." (Bot. Reg., April.) 



CCXXXVIII. Avia>yllk\ess. 



3333. COBV'RGIA. 

 23152(7 fiilva Herb. tavmy-Jlwd $ ,AI or If. Taw S. Amer. 1829? O l.r.m. Bot. reg. 1497 



A beautiful species, nearly allied to the splendid C. incarnata of Sweet's 

 Flower-Garden. The bulbs of this genus are hardy green-house plants ; 

 they may be kept dry in the winter, and planted out in the spring ; but 

 they will not endure the winter out of doors, except near the wall of a 

 stove. They produce an abundance of offsets, which is probably the cause 

 of their rarely flowering with us. Perhaps a strong and richly manured 

 loam would promote their flowering." (Herbert in Bot. Reg., May.) 



* Sprekel/a Heister formosissima Herbert, Amaryllis formosissima L. 

 " Heister first constituted this plant into a genus, and named it Sprekelz'ff,. 



