_Generic Character._

_Receptaculum_ paleaceum. _Pappus_ bicornis. _Calyx_ erectus, polyphyllus, basi radiis patentibus cinctus.

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

COREOPSIS _verticillata_ foliis decomposito-linearibus. _Linn. Syst.

Veg. ed. 14. Murr. p. 782._

COREOPSIS foliis verticillatis linearibus multifidis. _Gronov. Fl.

Virgin. p. 131._

DELPHINII vel mei foliis planta ad nodos positis caule singulari.

_Clayt. n. 308._

[Ill.u.s.tration: No 156]

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.

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HYACINTHUS BOTRYOIDES. GRAPE HYACINTH.

_Cla.s.s and Order._

HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

_Generic Character._

_Cor._ campanulata: _Pori_ 3 melliferi germinis.

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

HYACINTHUS _botryoides_ corollis globosis uniformibus, foliis ca.n.a.liculato-cylindricis strictis. _Linn. Syst. Veget. ed. 14.

Murr. p. 336._ _Aiton Hort. Kew. v. 1. p. 459._

HYACINTHUS _racemosus_ caeruleus major. _Bauh. Pin. 42._

HYACINTHUS Botroides caeruleus amoenus. The skie-coloured grape-flower.

_Park. Par. p. 114. p. 113. f. 5._

[Ill.u.s.tration: No 157]

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 PARKINSON'S _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.

[158]

HIBISCUS ROSA SINENSIS. CHINA-ROSE HIBISCUS.

_Cla.s.s and Order._

MONADELPHIA POLYANDRIA.

_Generic Character._

_Calyx_ duplex, exterior polyphyllus. _Capsula_ 5-locularis, polysperma.

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

HIBISCUS _Rosa Sinensis_ foliis ovatis ac.u.minatis serratis, caule arboreo. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab. ed. 14. Murr. p. 629._ _Ait. Hort.

Kew. p. 629._

ALCEA javanica arborescens, flore pleno rubicundo. _Breyn. cent. 121. t.

56._

HIBISCUS _javanica_. _Mill. Dict. ed. 6. 4to._ by whom cultivated in 1731.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No 158]

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 oeconomical purpose to which the flowers are applied, little consistent with their elegance and beauty, that of blacking shoes, whence their name of _Rosae calceolariae_; the shoes, after the colour is imparted to them, are rubbed with the hand, to give them a gloss, and which thereby receives a blueish tinge, to discharge which they have recourse to lemon juice.

With us it is kept in the stove, where it thrives and flowers readily during most of the summer; the single blossoms last but a short time, yet their superiority arising from the curious and beautiful structure of the interior parts of the flower, compensates for the shortness of their duration.

It is usually increased by cuttings.

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ALYSSUM SAXATILE. YELLOW ALYSSUM.