54 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



[Mr. J. G-. Baker, F.R.S., F.L.S., of Kew, has been good 

 enough to read the above paper, and he has famished, at the 

 request of the Editors, the following note thereon : — 



There is no reason to believe that the Hyacinth of the Greek 

 and Latin writers covered H. orientalis. Fee argues the matter 

 elaborately, and concludes the Hyacinth of Virgil was Lilium 

 Martagon. In the Renaissance herbals " Hyacinthus " covers 

 various species of Hyacinthus, Muscari, and Scilla, of which 

 three genera there are at least twenty species that grow wild 

 in the South of Europe. 



Hyacinthus orientalis extends as a wild plant from Cilicia, 

 where it ascends the mountains to 7,000 feet, eastward to 

 Mesopotamia. It is frequent in Palestine and Syria, especially 

 on the lower slopes of the Lebanon range. All our wild speci- 

 mens in the Kew Herbarium have Hyacinth-blue flowers ; but, 

 doubtless, like many of its allies, it varies in a wild state to 

 mauve and white. There is a sub-species, called H. provincialis, 

 wild in Provence. Of this, Jordan and Fourreau figure five 

 forms ; and from one of these — viz., H. albulus of Jordan ; not 

 from the oriental plant at all — I believe the early white 

 "Roman" Hyacinth to be descended. This must not be con- 

 founded with the Hyacinthus romanus of Linnaeus. 



The true Hyacinthus orientalis is well figured (two woodcuts, 

 life size) under that name in the Venetian edition of the New 

 Kreuterbuch of Matthiolus, published in 1563. He says (p. 455) 

 that he received from " dem hochgelerten Jacobo Antonio 

 Cortuso von Padua," and that " das hat er aus orientischen 

 Landen bekommen." Nine forms are figured in colours by 

 Swertius in his " Florilegium " in 1620 : viz. four single blues, 

 four single whites, and one double white. He figures also, under 

 the name of Hyacinthus, more than twenty other garden plants 

 which do not belong to H. orientalis at all.] 



THE CULTIVATION OF HYACINTHS IN HOLLAND. 

 By Heer J. H. Kersten, Haarlem. 

 [Read March 26, 1889.] 

 Having been invited by the Council of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society to read a paper on Hyacinths and their Culture, I deem 

 it an honour to have the opportunity to tell you all I know about 

 them. 



