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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



3. Ornamental ones, on account of the flowers and fruit, e.g. 

 M. coccinca and M. rosacea. 



Baker in his " Synopsis of the Genera and Species of Museae " takes 

 as a basis the height of the leaf-stalks, the number of the flowers within 

 each bract, the shape of the floral leaves, &c. He divided the species 

 into three sub-genera. Another English work, " Species and principal 

 Varieties of Micsa," deals chiefly with the history, origin, geographical 

 area, and economic uses of the plants. A brief description of all the 

 species is given by the present author. — W. C. W. 



Muscari, Note on a Monstrous. By P. Baccarini {Bull. B. Soc. 



Tosc. Ort. 6, p. 179 ; 1906).— The bulbs of this M. comosum, Wffld., 

 came from the gardens of Catania, where it is frequently grown. Not 

 being very prolific, it is not widely diffused. The bulbs obtained by the 

 author originated from wild plants in the neighbourhood of Aci San 

 Antonio. It was known to the botanists of the first half of the 

 seventeenth century. At the time of Colonna it was cultivated in Rome 

 in the garden of Cardinal Sannesio, in honour of whom it was called 

 Hijacinthus Sannesius panicula comosa. Boerhaave also speaks of it ; 

 as indeed most of the pre-Linneans. Linmeus gives a resume of their 

 observations and gives it his own name of H. monstrosus, expressing 

 a doubt as ta whether it is a monstrous variety of M. comosum. In 

 " Hort. Cliff." p. 126, he observes : " Hyacinthus floribus paniculatis 

 monstrosis. Nullum florem magis monstrosum me vidisse fateor, hinc 

 nec de genere, nec specie certus. Monstrosa est planta, quamani ideo 

 mater sit me nescire fateor, cum nulla pars fructificationis sana 

 persistat." And in "Spec. Plant." ed. 1, p. 318, he adopts the name 

 H. monstrosus, and adds to the synonym and the habitat (Pa via and 

 Boran) the phrase, "An sequentis sola varietas ? " and the following 

 species is H. comosus* 



There was a time when it was widely diffused in botanic gardens 

 and would seem to have since become lost, to judge by the silence of 

 horticultural journals with regard to such a distinctive form. Its dis- 

 appearance must be very recent, for it has been a subject for morphological 

 study by Engelmann, Morren, Magnus, and even De Vries. 



It is quite sterile, all the flowers being resolved into a dense truss of 

 curved and slightly clavate filaments, often hollow internally, reminding 

 one, especially before the buds unfold, of a cabbage. 



As regards the causes of the strange anomaly we are quite in the 

 dark ; it may be due to parasitic action on the part of fungi, mites, 

 or insects, but it may also be a case of a mutation in the sense of 

 De Vries. In support of this view is the fact of its rarity, and its 

 repeated and independent appearance in localities so far apart as Sicily, 

 Lombardy, and Borgogna. A rather obscure photograph of this plant is 

 given.— IT. C. W< 



Mushrooms in the Open {Garden, No. 1798, p. 219; May 5, 

 1906).— It does not matter very much, as regards the position of the 

 proposed mushroom-beds, whether they are in the sun or in shade, but 

 they must be placed in a sheltered position, well protected from north and 



