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_Specific Character and Synonyms._
TAGETES _patula_ caule subdiviso patulo. _Linn. Syst. Veg. ed. 14. Murr.
228._
TANACETUM Africanum Flos Africa.n.u.s minor. _Bauh. Pin. 132._
FLOS Africa.n.u.s. _Dod. Pempt. 255._ The small single French Marigold.
_Park. Par. p. 304._
[Ill.u.s.tration: No 150]
For richness and variety of tints few flowers can vie with this species of Tagetes, which forms one of the chief ornaments of our gardens at the close of summer.
Some authors make it a native of Africa, others of America.
Two princ.i.p.al varieties are usually kept in the gardens, the common small sort with a strong disagreeable smell, and a larger one here figured, usually called sweet-scented, the former is of more humble growth, its branches more spreading, its blossoms smaller than those of the latter, the flowers of which have usually a greater portion of the yellow tint, and the smell of the other so modified as to be far less disagreeable; sweet-scented we fear it can scarcely be called: from the seed of both sorts some flowers will be produced extremely double, and others single.
MILLER recommends the seed to be frequently changed, to prevent them from degenerating.
It is one of our tender annuals which require to be raised on a gentle hot-bed, if we are desirous of having them early; if that be not an object, they may be sown under a common hand-gla.s.s on a warm border the beginning of May, and, when large enough, planted out in the flower-beds, where they are to remain.
DODONaeUS observes, that the leaves, if held up to the light, appear as if perforated; and he adduces some instances, which prove the plant to be of a poisonous nature.
[151]
LOTUS TETRAGONOLOBUS. WINGED LOTUS.
_Cla.s.s and Order._
DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA.
_Generic Character._
_Legumen_ cylindric.u.m strictum. _Alae_ sursum longitudinaliter conniventes. _Cal._ tubulosus.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._
LOTUS _tetragonolobus_ leguminibus solitariis membranaceo-quadrangulis, bractaeis ovatis. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab, p. 691._ _Ait. Hort. Kew. p.
91._
LOTUS ruber siliqua angulosa. _Bauh. Pin. 332._
LOTUS pulcherrima tetragonolobus. _Comm. Hort. 91. t. 26._
PISUM quadratum, the crimson-blossom'd or square-codded Pease. _Park.
Parad. p. 338._
[Ill.u.s.tration: No 151]
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.
[152]
EPIDENDRUM COCHLEATUM. TWO-LEAV'D EPIDENDRUM.
_Cla.s.s and Order._
GYNANDRIA DIANDRIA.
_Generic Character._
Nectarium turbinatum, obliquum, reflexum.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._
EPIDENDRUM _cochleatum_ foliis oblongis geminis glabris striatis bulbo innatis, scapo multifloro, nectario cordato. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab, ed. 14. Murr. p. 819._ _Ait. Hort. Kew. V. 3. p. 303._
h.e.l.lEBORINE cochleato flore. _Plum. Sp. 9. u. 185. fig. 2._
[Ill.u.s.tration: No 152]
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 oeconomy of its roots; in the Orchis the roots spring from the crown of the bulb, which is formed in the earth; in the Epidendrum the bulb, or the part which appears to be a.n.a.logous to a bulb, though of a green colour, is produced above ground, while the roots or fibres proceed from below it.
[153]
BULBOCODIUM VERNUM. VERNAL BULBOCODIUM.
_Cla.s.s and Order._
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA.
