MUSCA'RI COMO'SUM. 
TASSELLED GRAPE-HYACINTH. 
Class. ** Order. 
HEXANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
ASPHODELEjE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
S. Europe. 
6 inches. 
April, May. 
Perennial. 
in 1596. 
No. 250. 
Muscari may be considered as immediately de- 
rived from moschus, musk; in allusion to its scent; 
the Greek moscos, being its original. The name 
moschus, retained to distinguish that peculiar and 
powerfully scented production, is the systematic name 
of the animal from which it is obtained ; a ruminating 
quadruped, somewhat like an antelope. 
Gerard calls the plant the fair-haired Jacinth, 
which name, as well as our specific term, was given 
in allusion to its tuft of terminating filaments. 
This subject has been previously alluded to as the 
parent of the Feathered Grape-Hyacinth, and the 
monstrosity so prominent in the offspring, may be 
traced in the tasselled unprolific head of the parent. 
The certainty of this connexion cannot, however, be 
insisted on, since their distinct existence carries our 
inquiry back into the obscurity of ancient sim piers. 
Within the bulb of this plant, as in the tulip, the 
flower will be found, in a very perfect state, in the 
winter. In January, its little campanulate corollas 
are tipt with blue, which, under the microscope, 
may be opened, and the parts of fructification clearly 
defined. Cultivation simple. 
Hort. Kew. 2, v. 2, 283. 
