Pointal. Seed-bud above, round-three-cornered, three-furrowed. Shaft simple, shorter than the blossom. Summit blunt.
Seed-vessel. Capsula roundish, three-sided, three-celled, three-valved.
Seeds in pairs (often,) roundish.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Hyacinthus corollis infundibuliformibus, corymbosis, erectis; scapo foliis linearibus breviore.
Hyacinth with funnel-shaped blossoms, growing in a broad topped spike, upright; flower-stem shorter than the leaves, which are linear.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A Blossom, with the Chives in their place, one Chive detached,
magnified.
2. The Seed-bud, Shaft and Summit, the Summit detached, magnified.
Amongst the plants, of this natural order, from the Cape of Good Hope, we find such an intermixture of character, in the different parts of fructification; that, if some latitude is not taken in referring them to some of the old genera, almost every fresh subject, we discover, would require a new one. This plant, although we have placed it to Hyacinthus, with those that have gone before us, has juster claims to Drimia, Polyanthes or Scilla; for it is wanting in the essential characters of Hyacinthus, being unfurnished with the honied pores, and having the chives inserted into the tube of the blossom, three of which are, alternately, double the length of the others. To Drimia, a new genus of Professor Jacquin, and a mutilation of Hyacinthus, it is most allied; but, we have not thought fit to alter its known station, as, without doubt, the multiplication of genera, or altering the place of known plants, adds but to the difficulties of a most intricate, though pleasing study. It is a hardy green-house bulb; delights in a mixture of peat earth and sandy loam; increases by offsets, and flowers in October or November. Our figure was made from a plant in the Nursery of Mr. Williams of Turnham Green, who first imported it in 1800. It is said, by Koenig, to grow in pasture lands near the Cape town, and was first noticed there by him.[Pg 115]
