58 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



would almost have thought it had been worth 

 while. Of course there would be difficulties in the 

 way, the flowers have too much moisture to allow 

 of their being steam-distilled, like roses and some 

 other scent-providing flowers, and to pomade them, 

 as violets are pomaded, would be rather a costly 

 process. 



The hyacinth Hyacinthus orientalis, though 

 certainly the great man of the family, as parent of 

 all that are commonly called hyacinths, is, after all, 

 only one of a group. Parkinson gives forty-eight 

 " iacinths," as he spells them. Some of them, it is 

 true, would seem to be only varieties of the same 

 kind, and some are things placed in other classes by 

 modern florists. Still, even without these, a good 

 many remain, and some at least are grown in the 

 bulb gardens of Holland to-day. Grape hyacinths 

 (Muscari, because they were supposed to smell of 

 musk) are of these. They are a good deal grown 

 in Holland, and are coming into much favour in 

 England, no one knows why. Hyacinthus candi- 

 cans is also grown in Holland. This, of course, is 

 a newcomer from the Cape, unknown to Parkinson ; 

 its tall stalks and far-scattered white bells give it 

 little resemblance in appearance to the rest of its 

 relations. The wood hyacinth, Nutans, is also raised, 



