Volume Iii Part 5 (2/2)

t. 107. fig. 6. var. min. fig. 7._

[Ill.u.s.tration: No 88]

Grows spontaneously in Portugal; flowers in the open border about the middle of May, is an old inhabitant of our gardens, but, like the _triandrus_, is now become scarce, at least in the nurseries about London; in some gardens in Hamps.h.i.+re we have seen it grow abundantly: MILLER calls it the _Hoop Petticoat Narcissus_, the nectary, as he observes, being formed like the ladies hoop petticoats.

It certainly is one of the neatest and most elegant of the genus, is propagated by offsets, and should be planted in a loamy soil, with an Eastern exposure.

[89]

VIOLA PEDATA CUT-LEAV'D VIOLET.

_Cla.s.s and Order._

SYNGENESIA MONOGAMIA.

_Generic Character._

_Calyx_ 5-phyllus. _Cor._ 5-petala, irregularis, postice cornuta.

_Capsula_ supera, 3-valvis; 1-locularis.

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

VIOLA _pedata_ acaulis, foliis pedatis septempart.i.tis. _Lin. Syst.

Veget. ed. 14._ _Murr. p. 802. Spec. Pl. p. 1323._ _Gronov. Fl.

Virg. ed. 2. p. 135._

VIOLA _tricolor_ caule nudo, foliis tenuius dissectis. _Banist. Virg._

VIOLA inodora flore purpurascente specioso, foliis ad modum digitorum incisis. _Clayt. n. 254._

[Ill.u.s.tration: No 89]

This species of Violet, a native of Virginia, is very rarely met with in our gardens; the figure we have given, was drawn from a plant which flowered this spring in the garden of THOMAS SYKES, Esq. at Hackney, who possesses a very fine collection of plants, and of American ones in particular.

It is more remarkable for the singularity of its foliage than the beauty of its blossoms; the former exhibit a very good example of the _folium pedatum_ of LINNaeUS, whence its name.

MILLER, who calls it _multifida_ from a former edition of LINNaeUS's _Species Plantarum_, says, that the flowers are not succeeded by seeds here, hence it can only be propagated by parting its roots.

The best mode of treating it, will be to place the roots in a pot of loam and bog earth mixed, and plunge the pot into a north border, where it must be sheltered in the winter, or taken up and kept in a common hot-bed frame.

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