base before bursting. Ovarium rounded, 3-celled, 3-valved :
valves bearing 6 to 8 ovula. Style upright. Stigma a small
bluut head.
Our drawing of this beautiful little early flowering bulb,
was made from some fine specimens of it, that were in
flower in great perfection in March last, in the fine collection
of bulbs cultivated by A. H. Haworth, E sq.; the figure
was drawn rather too soon, as the raceme lengthened out
considerably afterwards, and became much more elegant,
the footstalks also of the flowers lengthening out at the same
time, which gave the plant altogether a much more graceful
appearance; this plant was first introduced, we believe,
several years ago, in the collection of the Apothecaries’ Garden
at Chelsea, but it has now disappeared from it for some
time, and we do not know any collection that it is in at
present, except that of Mr. Haworth.
This certainly ranks among the prettiest of our hardy
Spring bulbs, very few can come up to it for beauty, and its
present scarcity makes it still the more desirable; and
should it not seed, it is likely to continue scarce for some
time: according to Passares it is a native of Germany, as
he has named it in the work above referred to, [Hyaeinthus
germanicus liliiflorus stellatus,) and his figure agrees precisely
with ours: like the rest of this interesting genus, it
succeeds best in a rich light sandy soil, and may be occasionally
increased by offsets from the bulbs, or from seeds,
which may perhaps ripen occasionally.
The generic name is derived from cnciXXa, a sea onion,
Plut. 9. 74. most probably after Scilla marilima.
] . Th e 5 Stamens, fron t and back v iew ; th e back, or sid e view , to show how the
filament is inserted in th e back o f the anther. 2. Ovarium, terminated b y the S ty le
and Stigma.