f1 [ 1931 ]
HYAC INT HUS racemosus.
Starch Hyacinth.
HEXANDRIA Monogynia.
Gen. Char. Cor. of 1 petal; tube swelling; limb
in 6 equal segments. Filaments uniform, inserted
into the tube. Caps, superior, of 3 cells. Seeds
globose, about 2 in each cell. Cal. none.
Spec. Char. Tube ovate, with six furrows. Upper
flowers sessile, barren. Leaves linear, loosely
spreading.
Syn. Hyacinthus racemosus. Linn. Sp. Pl. 455. JVilld.
Sp. PI. v. 2. 170. Sm. Prod. FI. Grcec. Sibth. v. 1.
2 3 8 . Jacq. Austr. t. 187. Curt. Mag. t. 122«
H. botryoides cseruleus. Ger. em. 118,
W e can no longer refuse this plant a place in the Flora Bri-
tannica ; though, like many others, unnoticed by Ray and
Dillenius, it is so abundantly wild in many places, that nothing
but its being amongst our oldest and most vulgar garden
flowers, and thence possibly naturalized, could cause a doubt
on the subject. It covers the earthy top of the antient city
wall on the north side of Norwich for many yards, along with
Teucrium Chamcedrys, t. 680, an equally doubtful native.
Our specimen was gathered in grassy fields on a sandy soil at
Cavenham, Suffolk, in May last, by the Rev. G. R. Leathes,
and we have received others, as certainly wild, from Dr. Lamb
of Newbery.
The bulbs are ovate, often crowded, sometimes scattered.
Leaves numerous, linear and very narrow, channelled, taper
at their base, and loosely spreading. Stalk solitary, shorter
than the leaves, erect. Cluster ovate, dense, of numerous
deep blue flowers smelling like wet starch, the upper ones
sessile and destitute of a pistil. Stamens ranged in 2 rows
within the tube. Limb whitjsh, small. Capsule of 3 lobes,
with 2 seeds in each cell.
We dare not separate the genus Muscari from Hyacinthus,
as H. romanus, which is truly monopetalous and therefore
not a Scilla, so naturally combines them. See Curt. Mag.
t. 939.