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-glass on a warm border the beginning of May, and, when large enough, planted out in the flower-beds, where they are to remain.

Dodonæus 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.

Class and Order.

Diadelphia Decandria.

Generic Character.

N^o151.

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.

Class and Order.

Gynandria Diandria.

Generic Character.

N^o152.

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 œconomy 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 analogous 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.

Class and Order.

Hexandria Monogynia.

Generic Character.

N^o153.

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.

[154]

Saponaria Ocymoides, Basil Soap-Wort.

Class and Order.

Decandria Digynia.

Generic Character.