By Richard Anthony Salisbury, Esq. 47 



had already cultivated it at Seville, and according to Re- 

 doute, it was not planted in his garden at Boisgencier, by 

 Father Minuti, till 1652, whom that author makes to have 

 brought it from Persia : I only infer, however, that he tra- 

 velled from Hindostan over land. Redoute, moreover 

 asserts, that the authors of the Flora Peruviana found it wild 

 in America, but in the work itself they say, cultivated in gar- 

 dens. The evidence of Hernandez, however, I think, takes 

 away all doubt about the matter ; he says, " provenit in fri- 

 gidis et temperatis regionibus, veteri incognita mundo," and 

 as the Agave, to which the Tuberose is more immediately 

 allied, is also a native of Mexico, I am fully of opinion that 

 it is indigenous there. 



The description given by the venerable L'Ecluse, of his 

 specimen, half dried and battered by the journey, with only 

 the lowest flower of the spike expanded, affords a memorable 

 instance of his accuracy and discernment. The size of the 

 stem, insertion and figure of the leaves, and their hempy 

 texture, are particularly noticed ; the shape of the corolla, 

 with its'general similarity to that of the Asiatic Hyacinth, 

 but in consistence rather to that of the Orange, is next re- 

 marked ; and having no knowledge of the root to guide his 

 judgment, but what he derived from Simon de Tovar's 

 appellation ofBulbus Indians florem album proferens Hyacinthi 

 Orientalis temulum, he guesses it may possibly belong to the 

 same genus with the Bulbus eriophorus, or Peruvian Hyacinth, 

 though not without some doubts raised by its stem being 

 covered with leaves, and its tubular corolla. Two years after- 

 wards, these doubts were corroborated by his receiving roots 

 both from Simon deTovar, and the Comte d'Aremberg, 

 which by August were full of leaves; and I think it worth 



