4 ty 
June. 
Pl. 4%: 
and naked. ‘The Flowers are numerous, and 
they crown the Top in a broad Tuft. 
Their Colour is avery delicate pearly grey: the 
coarfe Language of our common Writers names | 
st ath Colour; and the Smell is very delicate. 
-- ‘There is no Cup to the Flower. 
Its Body is compofed of fix oval Petals, seitich | 
ftand expanded in the Manner of Rays of a Star. 
Within ftand fix fhort Filaments with oblong i in-} 
cumbent Buttons; and in their Centre from a. 
roundifh Rudiment, rifes a fimple Style of the 
‘Length of the Filaments, and crown’d with a 
fingle Head. 
The fix Filaments fhew the Plant to be one | 
of the Hexandria of Linn us, and the fingle | 
| Cautions we have given on like Occafions'; and 
Few of the Genera of Plants hove been more | 19 Auguft-a Bed in the Nurfery open to the South — 
Eaft being made up with this Compoft, let the - 
Style refers it to the Monogynia. 
confounded ‘than the Hyacinth; few Inftances 
thew more ftrongly than that, the flight and im- 
perfeét Regard they had to the real, effential, and 
I mutt fay ine obvious Characters, imprefled by 
Nature in the Flowers of Plants, who firft ar-— 
ranged and difpofed them for the Student. 
We fee in this Inftance a Plant altogether dif. 
ferent from the Hyacinths join’d with them under 
the fame Name. Its Flower compofed of fix Pe- 
“OF GARDENING 
a proper Attention in raifing it from Seeds, and 
adapt a right Soil, and often enough ‘renew it, 
will raife the Flower to a Degree of Beauty they 
never faw who have only been uled to it treated in 
| the common Method. 
Let the Compoft be made for it thus : 
Mix a Barrow of rich Meadow Earth with a 
_Bufhel of Wood-pile Mould, a Peck of Fowls 
{ Dung, and two Pecks of Sand; throw this up in 
a Heap in Autumn, and let it lie till the Autumn 
following. 
When the Plants are in Bloom, mark one of 
thofe for Seed which has numerous large Flowers, 
a firm Stalk, and not too many Leaves. 
Let the Seed from thefe be faved with the 
Seeds be fown upon it. 
The young Plants are to be treated: in the 
fame Manner as the other bulbous Kinds; and 
when brought to flower, the Seeds of fome of 
| the fineft thus raifed, are'to be fown in the fame 
Manner. Thus will be obtain’d from the fecond 
Sowing, the moft perfect Flowers this elegant 
Plant is capable of producing ; and thefe Roots 
| are to be propagated farther by Off-fets. 
tals, and that of the Hyacinth of one, could not | are 
be received as a Diftinétion; and yet the fame 
Authors who joined this to the Hyacinth, fepa- 
rated the proper Species of that Genus into different 
imaginary ones, under as many diftinét Names. 
They allowed the Term Hyacinth only when the 
Body of the Flower was tubular and oblong ; 
when fhorter and more fwoln at the Bafe, they 
erected a new Genus, under the Name Mu/cari, 
and fo of the others. "Tis to LInNAUS we owe 
the fixing of what are, and what are not gene- 
rical Characters, and the juft Diftribution. | 
Culture of this HyacinTH. 
We do not know with Certainty the Native 
Country of this elegant Flower. 
in Italy. We found it there firft in Gardens. It 
has been very long familiar in our own, and the 
‘Culture is eafy: but let not this be an Occafion 
co neglecting it: the Gardener who fhall beftow 
- Off-fets taken away at that Time. 
-‘Besxer calls it 
Italian, and many follow him; but they miftake 
his Senfe, who fuppofe he meant that it was wild 
~The Bed in which thefe are planted mutt be of 
the fame Compoft, and it muft be renewed every 
Wear oo | | 
The Roots muft always be taken up as foon 
as the Stalks and Leaves are faded; and their 
very needful Caution; becaufe if they are left on, 
they will make the Plant flower weak the fuc- 
ceeding Year. They are too {mall to flower them- 
felves when taken off annually, but they will en- 
creafe to the full as well in a Nurfery Bed as with 
the Parent Plant. ‘Therefore the true Conduct 
is to feparate them every Year, and to plant 
them in the Nurfery; from whence a Parcel 
may thus be every fucceffive Year taken out for 
the Garden; while at the fame Time the or iginal 
Roots are kept clear, and the whole Strength of 
Nature is given to their flowering, — 
This is a Method proper to be obferved in 
many others, as well as this Hyacinth; and will 
be a Way at once to encreafe the Number, and 
pc the old Stock in Perfection. 
6 BROADLEAVED PORTUGAL IRIS. 
_ Fig. 6. ture has given a great Number of Species ; and 
the Varieties of thefe added by Art, are altoge- 
-ther-innumerable. This is a very elegant Kind, 
originally. diftinét, and very different from the 
others in its whole Form. | 
The Authors who have written of Fividts 
have named it 5 and none of thofe who have 
Ne Arc Fe , | 
The Family of the Jris’s is very extenfive: Na- 
given Hiftories of the European Plants have 
omitted ‘its Defcription. | 
Ciusius names it the firft among the Dwarf 
Tris’s, Chameairidis,; C. Bauvutne calls it Chameai- 
ris variegata; and others, Iris humilis latifolia 
flore violaceo: low broad leaved Iris, with a Violet 
colour’d Flower. 
Linnzus, more diftiné&t in his Names, calls it, 
6H Tris 
This is a 
4.8 5 
June, 
