with them might refer to either East or West Indies. But 
in the history of the plants of Mexico, compiled from ob- 
servations made on the spot by Hernandez, the plant 1s 
said in precise words “ to be produced in the temperate 
and cool districts (of Mexico), and to be a kind of 
Narcissus, not known in the old world.” Here we can 
hardly avoid inferring, from the first part of the sentence, 
that it is meant to be recorded as indigenous; although we 
may be inclined to dispute the authority of a naturalist of 
two hundred years ago, who presumes to decide a plant’s 
not being native of any other part of the globe than Ame- 
rica. Father Camell, again, whose account of the vege- 
tables found in Luzon (one of the Philippine isles) has been - 
added by Ray to his own work, tells us unequivocally that 
the plant had been imported by the Spaniards from Mexico, 
by whom it was called Vara de S. José, Saint Joseph’s wand, 
and that it was known by the name of the Mexican Aspho- 
del. The Flora peruviana, on the other hand, enumerates it 
merely as a garden-plant in Peru; altho’ that work is cited 
by Monsieur Redouté, as well as the learned writer of the 
botanical articles in Rees’s Cyclopedia, as enumerating it 
for one of the wild plants of that country. 
The appellation it has obtained with us of “ The Tube- 
rose, evidently originates in its having been distinguished 
by all the older botanists from the bulbous-rooted Hyacinth, 
by the description of the “ Hyacinth witha tuberous root,” 
Hyacinthus tuberosus, or tuberosd radice. The present ge- 
neric name is sometimes written Poryantrues; but since it 
is admitted to be compounded of wor and aybog, alluding to 
its being a favourite in towns, and not of zoAue and ayes, 
we shall scarcely be thought pedantic in saying, that the 
spelling at the head of this article is right. 
_ The roots are annually imported by the Italian warehouse- 
men from Italy and Portugal, and sometimes from the 
warmer parts of North America. They arrive early in the 
spring, and if then planted, by a slight assistance from 
the hotbed, flower in the open air about September. The 
main root perishes after flowering, and is replaced by a 
brood of offsets, which become flower-bearers in their turn, ° 
The double variety is known to have been raised from seed — 
by a Mons". de la Cour, at Leyden, about 60 or 70 years ago, 
Cultivated in England by Parkinson in 1629. via 
a A flower dissected, to show the stamens and pistil, 
