THE LADIES' FLOWER-GARDEN 
]2 
3.—NIGELLA HISPANICA, Lin. 
Synonyme _N. latifolia.— Mill. Diet. 
Engravings. —Bot. Mag. t. 1265, and our fig. 3, in Plate 2. 
Specific Character. —Anthers pointed; styles from 8 to 10, 
spreading. Carpels with a crested ridge running down the hack, partly 
distinct, but connected below the middle into an obconical fruit. 
THE LARGE SPANISH NIGELLA. 
Stem erect, smooth, and with the branches pointing upwards.—( G. 
Don.) 
Variety. —2V. Hispanica, 2 alba, Hort., see fig. 4, in Plate 2. 
| This very showy and distinct variety has white, or rather cream- 
I coloured flowers. 
Description, history, &c. —This is, in fact, the only beautiful species of the genus. The flower is very 
large and handsome, with the carpels rising boldly like a pillar in the centre. The flowers of the species are of 
a deep rich mazarine blue ; and when they fall, the carpels are almost, if not quite, as ornamental. They are 
strongly marked with a brownish red dotted crest, which runs up the back of each ; and their points spread out 
so as to form a kind of radiated crown, to the vase-shaped capsule formed by their union below. The plant 
is about a foot and a half high, and is of a bushy compact habit of growth. The Spanish Nigella is a native of 
the south of Spain, and Barbary, where it is common in the corn fields. It is perfectly hardy, and will grow in 
any soil; yet notwithstanding this, its beauty, and the circumstance of its having been in cultivation since the 
days of Parkinson (1629), it has never been common in British gardens ; and, while the common Nigella is 
known to everybody, comparatively few persons have ever even heard of the Spanish kind. It flowers in 
Juno and July, nearly a month earlier than the common species, and is very ornamental. There were beautiful 
specimens of it in flower in the summer of 1838, at Ronald’s nursery, Brentford, and Lee’s nursery, Hammer¬ 
smith, from the latter of which our drawings were made. 
Culture.— The soil for the Spanish Nigella should be loamy, rather rich than otherwise, and the situation 
somewhat sheltered. If the soil be poor or dry, and the situation too much exposed, the plants will not take 
handsome shapes, and the flowers will neither be large nor richly coloured, without a great deal of watering. The 
ground may be prepared and the seeds sown in the same manner as directed for Flos Adonis ; and the young 
plants thinned out when they are two or three inches high. There is however this difference, that as the 
plants of the Flos Adonis, which are taken out of the patches when they are thinned, are to be thrown away, 
they may be pulled up by hand ; whereas the plants of all the Nigellas will bear transplanting, and as it is 
worth taking this trouble with those of the Spanish kind, they must be taken up with more care. For this 
purpose, the plants to be transplanted should be carefully raised with a trowel, and taken up, if practicable, with 
a little mould attached ; at all events care should be taken not to injure the fibrous roots, the spongioles at the 
extremities of which are the mouths of the plant through which it takes its food. Should any of the fibrils be 
bruised, or otherwise injured, they should be cut off above where they are hurt ; as this will induce the plant to 
throw out new ones, instead of wasting its strength in fruitless efforts to heal the wounds. Before the plant 
is taken up, a hole should be made with a stick, or small dibber, in the ground to which it is to be transferred ; 
and when the root of the plant is put into this hole, the mould should be crumbled in round it, and afterwards 
pressed down with the hands, in such a manner as to give the root, especially at its lower extremity, a Ann hold 
of the soil. It may here be observed that if the plant be only made firm by pressing the earth round its collar, 
that is, just at the surface of the soil, it will in all probability die, or at least it will not thrive ; whereas if the 
root be made firm at its lower extremity, and the earth filled closely in upon it, the plant will grow and prosper ; 
even though the earth should be quite loose round the collar. The common way in which gardeners transplant 
