Volume Iv Part 2 (1/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: No 113]
”Is an annual plant which grows naturally in Asia and America, but has been long cultivated for ornament in the English gardens, and is generally known by the t.i.tle of Convolvulus major. Of this there are three or four lasting varieties; the most common hath a purple flower, but there is one with a white, another with a red, and one with a whitish-blue flower, which hath white seeds. All these varieties I have cultivated many years, without observing them to change. If the seeds of these sorts are sown in the spring, upon a warm border where the plants are designed to remain, they will require no other culture but to keep them clear from weeds, and place some tall stakes down by them, for their stalks to twine about, otherwise they will spread on the ground and make a bad appearance. These plants, if they are properly supported, will rise ten or twelve feet high in warm Summers: they flower in June, July, and August, and will continue till the frost kills them. Their seeds ripen in Autumn.” _Miller's Gard. Dict. ed. 4to. 1771._
[114]
SILENE PENDULA. PENDULOUS CATCHFLY.
_Cla.s.s and Order._
DECANDRIA TRIGYNIA.
_Generic Character._
Calyx ventricosus. Petala 5, unguiculata coronata ad faucem, Capsula 3-locularis.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._
SILENE _pendula_ calycibus fructiferis pendulis inflatis: angulis decem scabris. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab. ed. 14._ _Murr. p. 421._
VISCAGO hirsuta sicula, lychnidis aquaticae facie, supina. _Dill. Hort.
Elth. 421. t. 312. f. 404._
[Ill.u.s.tration: No 114]
Grows spontaneously in Sicily and Crete; is an annual of humble growth, and hence a suitable plant for the borders of the flower garden, or the decoration of Rock-work, as its blossoms are shewy, and not of very short duration.
It flowers in June and July, and if once permitted to scatter its seeds, will come up yearly without any trouble.
[115]
LATHYRUS SATIVUS. BLUE-FLOWER'D LATHYRUS, or CHICHLING-VETCH.
_Cla.s.s and Order._
DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA.
_Generic Character._
_Stylus_ pla.n.u.s, supra villosus, superne latior. _Calycis_ laciniae superiores 2 breviores.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._
LATHYRUS _sativus_ pedunculis unifloris, cirrhis diphyllis tetraphyllisque, leguminibus ovatis compressis dorso bimarginatis.