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S C I L L A nutans.
Hare-belly or W ild Hyacinth.
H E X A N D R I A Monogynia.
Gen. Char. Cor. of 6 petals, fpreading, deciduous.
Filaments of equal thicknefs throughout.
Spec. Char. Root folid. Spike drooping. Flowers
pendent, bell-fhaped, fomewhat cylindrical, their
tips reflexeu, BracSteee in pairs, acute. Leaves
flaccid.
Syn. Hyaeinthus non-fcriptus. Linn. S f. P I. 4 5 3 .
Hudf. F I. An. 14 1 . With. Bot. A r r . 356 . Relb.
Cant. 136 . Sibth.Ox. n o . Curt. Lond. fa fc . a.
t. .18.
H . Anglicus. Rail Syn. 3 7 3 .
C o m m o n in thickets, bufhy fields, and under dry hedges,
flowering in May.
Bulb white, folid, acrid and poifonous, but abounding with
the mucilage which makes ftarch. Leaves linear, channelled,
acute, flaccid, reflexed from within 2 or 3 inches of their fum-
mit, of a greyifh green. Stalk ere£t, a little higher than the
leaves, terminating in a drooping fpike of from 6 to 10 pendent
alternate flowers, each Handing on a little blue flower-ftalk,
accompanied by a pair of linear acute bra&eae of the fame colour.
Petals nearly linear, perfectly diftinft at the bafe, but
approaching each other fo as to form a cylindrical figure for
about two thirds of their length, when they become fuddenly
recurved and fpreading. Stamina united for a confiderable way
to their correfponding petals, uniform and thread-fhaped. Ger-
men with 6 fides ; but we agree with Dr. Withering and Mr.
Relhan, that it is deftitute of the honey-pores which make the
character of a Hyaeinthus. Style fimple. Stigma blunt, moift.
' So many authors have been at a lofs to find the honey-pores
in any fpecies of Hyacinth, that the want of them in this would
hardly®]'ullify the removing it to the genus of Scilla ; but the corolla
being of 6 diftincf petals, added to its perfect affinity with
S. campanulata, Hort. Kew. and, as Dr. Stokes juftly remarks,
with other fpecies of that genus, will, it is hoped, juftify this
alteration, which has often been hinted at, but never ventured
upon entirely. M. de Juffieu has thought the character of
Hyaeinthus ought to depend on the corolla, rather than on the
pores of the germen, and he alfo would therefore exclude this
fpecies, from thence. For a fpecific name hyacinthina would
gladly have been chofen, but there is already a S. hyacinthoides.
Nutans exprefles an eflential part of its fpecific character, and
any thing is better than non-fcriptus. The flowers are fragrant,
and fometimes vary to white or flelh-coloured.