flowers

A common annual in our gardens, where it has been long cultivated, is a native of Sicily, and flowers in the open borders in July and August, requires the same management as other hardy annuals.Miller observes, that it was formerly cultivated as an esculent plant, the green pods being dressed and eaten as peas.

Plants which draw their support from other living ones, of which there are numerous instances, are by Botanists termed parasitical, and of this kind are most of the present family, deriving their generic name, which is of Greek extraction, from growing on trees, into the bark of which they fix their roots, some of them are also found to grow on dead wood, as the present plant, which is described by Sir Hans Sloane, in his history of Jamaica, V. 1. p. 250. t. 121. f. 2. as not only growing plentifully on trees, but also on the palisadoes of St. Jago de la Vega.Instances of these plants flowering in England are very rare, Commodore Gardner, in the year 1789, presented to the Apothecaries company some roots of this plant, taken up in the woods of Jamaica with great care, and which being successfully treated by Mr. Fairbairn in their garden at Chelsea, one of them threw up a flowering stem last February, from whence our drawing was made.Mr. Fairbairn planted the roots in pots of earth, composed of rotten wood and decayed leaves, plunging them into the tan bed of a pit of considerable size.In its fructification, the Epidendrum obviously agrees with the Orchis tribe, but differs essentially in the

The excellent and learned Clusius, in the second appendix to his history of rare plants, gives a very good figure of this plant, both in flower and seed, accompanied with its history, our Parkinson also represents it in his Parad. terr. and gives such a minute description of it, as convinces us he must have cultivated it at the time he wrote Mr. Miller appears not to have been well acquainted with it, or he would not have described its root to be like that of the Snowdrop, had he said Colchicum, he would not have misled Retzius also in his Bot. Obs. gives a figure of it with the flower dissected.The Bulbocodium, of which there is only one species, is a mountainous plant, a native of Spain, and flowers in the open ground at the same time as the Crocus, for a purple variety of which it might easily be mistaken at first sight, but it differs from the Crocus in having six stamina, and from the Colchicum, to which it is very nearly allied, in having one style instead of three.It is at present a rare plant in our gardens, which we attribute to its bulbs not admitting of much increase, as well as to its being liable to be killed by frost, and hence requiring more care than it may be thought entitled to from its appearance.It varies in the colour of its flowers.

The Saponaria Ocymoides has been figured in the appendix to the fifth volume of the Flora Austriaca in its wild state, as in similar works every plant is expected to be, our figure represents a branch of it only, taken (as all ours in this work professedly are) from a garden specimen which grew on a wall of a particular construction in our garden at Brompton, and of which it was the principal ornament through the months of May, June, and July, during most of which time it was covered with a profusion of bloom.Though it produces blossoms in abundance, it affords but little seed, but may be increased by slips or cuttings.It is a hardy perennial, a native of France, Italy, Switzerland, and Carinthia, loves a pure air and a dry situation, grows best among rocks, stones, or out of a wall, and certainly is one of the best plants imaginable for ornamenting of rock work.I received seeds of it, and many other rare plants, from my very kind friend Mr. Daval, of Orbe, in Switzerland.

The Oxalis versicolor is considered as one of the most beautiful of the many species cultivated in gardens, and, though well known to, and described by several of the older Botanists, has graced our collections but a few years, being introduced to the Royal Garden at Kew, from the Cape (where, as well as in Ethiopia, it grows spontaneously) by Mr. Masson, in the Year 1774.Many of this genus flower early in the spring, the season in which this species also puts forth its blossoms, but by dexterous management it may be made to flower during most of the year, and this is effected by placing the pea like tubera or knobs which the root sends forth, and by which the plant is propagated, in pots filled with loam and bog earth at stated distant periods.Like most of the Cape plants, it is well adapted to the greenhouse, and succeeds best when placed on a front shelf of the house, where it can have plenty of light and air, some keep it in the stove, but there the plant is drawn up, and the flowers lose a part of their brilliancy in no situation do they ever expand but when the sun shines on them, this is the less to be regretted, as they are most beautiful when closed.

The Coreopsis verticillata is a hardy, perennial, herbaceous plant, a native of North America, producing its blossoms, which are uncommonly shewy, from July to October, and is readily propagated by parting its roots in Autumn.It grows to a great height, and is therefore rather adapted to the shrubbery than the flower garden.Clayton remarks, that the petals, though of a yellow colour, are used by the inhabitants to dye cloth red.

The Hyacinthus botryoides, a native of Italy, and cultivated in the time of Gerard and Parkinson, is now become scarce with us, being only to be accidentally met with in long established gardens, we first saw it in the garden of our very worthy and much valued friend, Mr. John Chorley, of Tottenham, to whose lady my collection stands indebted for several rare and valuable plants.This species increases sufficiently fast by offsets, but in the open border does not very readily produce flowering stems as both it and the racemosus are apt to become troublesome in a garden from their great increase, we would recommend their bulbs to be placed in moderately sized pots filled with light earth, and plunged in the borders where they are designed to flower, in the autumn they should be regularly taken out, the offsets thrown away, and about half a dozen of the largest bulbs left, all of which will most probably flower at the usual time, the end of March or beginning of April.Parkinson, who most admirably describes this and the racemosus, enumerates three varieties, viz. the white, the blush coloured, and the branched, the first is frequently imported with other bulbs from Holland, the second and third we have not seen, the latter, if we may judge from Parkinsons fig. in his Parad. is a most curious plant, and was obtained, as Clusius reports, from seeds of the white variety, whether it now exists is deserving of inquiry.The botryoides differs from the racemosus, in having its leaves upright, its bunch of flowers smaller, the flowers themselves larger, rounder, of a paler and brighter blue.

Rumphius in his Herbarium Amboinense gives an excellent account of this beautiful native of the East Indies, accompanied by a representation of it with double flowers, in which state it is more particularly cultivated in all the gardens in India, as well as China, he informs us that it grows to the full size of our hazel, and that it varies with white flowers.The inhabitants of India, he observes, are extremely partial to whatever is red, they consider it as a colour which tends to exhilarate, and hence they not only cultivate this plant universally in their gardens, but use its flowers on all occasions of festivity, and even in their sepulchral rites he mentions also an

As this plant has very generally obtained in gardens and nurseries the name of yellow Alyssum, we have retained it, for though it is not the only one of the genus which produces yellow flowers, it may still be called yellow by way of eminence, such is the extreme brilliancy and profusion of its blossoms.It is a native of Crete, and was first cultivated in this country by Mr. Miller, in 1731, at Chelsea garden.It begins to flower about the latter end of April, and continues to blossom through great part of May, and it is not uncommon for it to flower again in autumn.If it has a pure air and a dry situation, it will grow in almost any soil.The usual mode of propagating it is by slips, or cuttings. As it is a small, shewy, hardy plant, and not disposed to over run others, it is very suitable to embellish rock work.

Miller informs us in his Dictionary, that the Pulmonaria Virginica grows naturally upon mountains in most parts of North America, that the seeds were sent many years since by Mr. Banister, from Virginia, and some of the plants were raised in the garden of the Bishop of London, at Fulham, where for several years it was growing.Though a native of Virginia, it ranks with the hardy herbaceous plants of our gardens, and flowers in the open border about the middle of April, the blossoms before their expansion are of a reddish purple colour, when fully blown they become of a light bright blue, the foliage is glaucous, or blueish green, it is said to vary with white and flesh coloured flowers.In favourable seasons, the Flower Garden owes much of its gaiety to this elegant plant, and at a time when ornament is most desirable.It requires a pure air, and a situation moderately sheltered, as the cold easterly winds which too readily prevail in April, when it is in flower, are apt to deface it.It is usually propagated by parting its roots in autumn, and is a free grower.