42 On the Cultivation of the Polianthes Tuberosa. 



every populous country, we can form but a very imperfect 

 idea of their tremendous power and strength in warmer cli- 

 mates, while thinly inhabited. Hence the progress, even of 

 Agriculture, was in all probability for a long period slow and 

 interrupted : years and years must have elapsed, before her 

 younger and more delicate sister, Horticulture, ventured to 

 appear ; though, to plant a clump of Bananas, which would 

 give immediate shade, and to perfume the surrounding air 

 with the fragrance of an Orange grove, independent of the 

 fruit these two vegetables afford, must have been natural, one 

 would think, to many a savage of finer feelings, the moment 

 his residence became fixed. 



To leave the language of fancy for that of fact, I know no 

 ornamental plant, which seems to me more deserving of cul- 

 tivation in the warmer soils of this kingdom, or that w ould 

 repay the labour attending it with greater profits, than the 

 Tuberose. Its botanical description is as follows : 



ORDO NATURALIS. 

 Agavece ; post Dory anthem, 

 Polianthes. L.J. Pericarpium fere totum inferum, 3-locu- 

 lare, demum crustaceum. Corollas Tubus longus, juxta 

 basin curvus,infundibuliformis : Limbus parum irregularis, 

 profunde 6-fidus. Filamenta brevissima, ore tubi inserta, 

 subulata. Antherse longac, post anthesin recurvae et parum 

 incumbentes. Semina plurima, 2-plici serie inserta, com-, 

 planata. Herba, 4-5 pedes alta. Radix Oblonga tuberosa, 

 jibris carnosis multiceps. Folia Radicalia, facie aliqud Hya- 

 cinthi Orientalis, subcarnosa. Flores nocte fragrant issimi, 

 spied longa paribus alterni, subsessiles. Bractea solitaria sub 



