Muscari comosum, the well-known. Tassel-Hyacinth, but is 
very distinct from Scixa romana of which it has been 
deemed a variety by Lamarck; there the corolla is six- 
parted, here the divisions are exceedingly shallow. | Clusius, 
' whose excellent description we have extracted entire, tells 
us, that roots of our plant were received at Vienna, from 
Constantinople, in 1578. It is now known to be indige- 
nous of Caucasian Tartary, the Ukraine, and Puglia. We 
have seen a specimen, in the Banksian Herbarium, that 
was gathered, by the late Dr. Patrick Russell, in Syria. 
Muscanzt is distinguished from Hyacinruus by the con- 
striction of the throat of the corolla, and the six very shallow 
and sometimes nearly obsolete lobules forming the mouth 
of the same. 
_ Bulb tunicated, with brownish integuments. Leaves 
4-6, 6-9 inches long, lorate, tapered, obtuse, villously 
edged, especially towards the bottom. Scape round, a foot 
or more in height: raceme terminal, subpyramidal, loosely 
many-flowered; peduncles purplish, divaricate, at first only 
one or two inches long, ultimately acquiring double that 
Jength or more, stiff. Corolla rather smaller than that. of 
the Tassel-Hyacinth, at first white, then passing into a dull 
brownish purple colour before it decays. In its native place 
the scapes, with their peduncles, become quite dry and rigid 
in the autumn, and are blown about the fields by the winds 
that prevail at that season. Filaments wholly adnate to the 
corolla: anthers purple. Style the length of the stamens; 
stigma trigonal, slightly pubescent. Capsule oblong, tri- 
gonal: seeds black, roundish. 
