The Pellitory of Spain is more celebrated as an useful than an
ornamental plant, the root which is of a very hot and biting nature
being a common application for the cure of the tooth-ach; but, divested
of its utility as a medicinal plant, it merits a place in collections on
account of the beauty both of its foliage and flowers, the latter are
more handsome when in bud than when fully expanded, the underside of the
florets being of a fine purple colour, the upper pure white; it is
moreover a very rare plant in this country, notwithstanding it was
cultivated here so long since as 1570: Parkinson evidently grew it, as
he observes that the roots of the cultivated plant, were much larger
than those of the wild one; he tells us also, that it was too tender to
endure our winters: to the latter cause, as well as to the difficulty of
propagating it, for it does not ripen its seeds in this country, we may
attribute its present scarcity: Mr. Miller raised this plant in 1732, in
a very curious way, from seeds picked out from among raisins.
In its place of growth it is not confined to Spain, but is found in the
Levant, Syria, Arabia, and elsewhere; flowers with us from May to July,
and may be increased by cuttings of the roots, a mode of propagating by
which we sometimes happily succeed with rare and valuable plants when
all others fail.
It is a plant not very nice as to the quality of the soil in which it
grows, but must have a warm dry situation, will succeed very well in a
pot, or it may be planted in the open border; but especial care must be
taken to secure it against frost in the winter.
[463]
[Illustration: Nº. 463]
Epidendrum Ciliare. Fringed Epidendrum.
_Class and Order._
Gynandria Diandria.
_Generic Character._
_Cor._ 6-petala. _Nectarium_ turbinatum, obliquum reflexum. _Caps._
infera 1-locularis, 3-valvis, fenestrata.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._
EPIDENDRUM _ciliare_ foliis oblongis aveniis, nectarii labio
tripartito ciliato: intermedia lineari, cauli bifolio. _Linn. Syst.
Vegetab. ed. 14._ _Murr. p. 818._ _Jacq. Amer. pict. p. 110. t.
209._
Of this parasitical tribe the number of species described in the third
edition of the _Sp. Pl. Linn. 1764_, amounts to thirty; in Gmelin's
thirteenth edition of the _Syst. Nat. Linn. 1791_, no less than
seventy-five are enumerated, which is a vast accession in so short a
period; most of these are natives of hot climates, and on that account
require a stove heat in this country; from their nature also they
require a situation not to be exactly imitated, they are therefore to be
regarded as plants very difficult of culture, and we are not to be
surprised that three species only are enumerated in the _Hort.
Kew._--but, since the publication of that work, many others have been
added to the royal collection, and this among the rest.
The rare and singular species here represented, a native of the warmer
parts of America, and the West-Indies, flowered with Mr. Whitley,
Nurseryman, Old-Brompton, in Feb. 1799, and at irregular periods before
that time; he informs me that it is not constant as to the time of its
blowing, and that though the plant flowers with him, it never assumes a
fine healthy green appearance, he propagates it by dividing its limbs or
branches, which often put forth small roots; the plant grows in a pot,
in a mixture of loam and peat or bog-earth, and is kept constantly
plunged in the tan-pit of the stove.
[464]
[Illustration: Nº. 464]
Sisyrinchium Gramineum. Grass-Leaved Sisyrinchium.
_Class and Order._
Gynandria Triandria.
_Generic Character._
_Spatha_ 2-phylla. _Petala_ 6-plana. _Caps._ 3-locularis infera
3-valvis.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._
SISYRINCHIUM _gramineum_ caule ancipiti lato, germinibus glabris.
SISYRINCHIUM _angustifolium_ foliis lineari-gladiolatis, pedunculis
longioribus. _Mill. Dict._
SISYRINCHIUM _cæruleum_ parvum, gladiato caule, virginianum. _Pluk.
alm. 348. t. 61. f. 1._
BERMUDIANA graminea, flore minore cæruleo. _Dill. Elth. 49. t. 41.
f. 49._
GLADIOLUS cæruleus hexapetalus caule etiam gladiato. _Banist. virg.
1926._
In a former Number of this Work, we gave a figure of the large variety
of _Sisyrinch. Bermud._ of _Linn._ regarding it as a distinct species,
and naming it _iridioides_, conformably to Dillenius's specific
description; we regret now that we did not continue to it the name of
_Bermudiana_ (it being the true Bermudas plant) and which cannot with
propriety be applied to the present species, a native of Virginia, far
more diminutive, with flowers much smaller, of a paler blue colour, a
much hardier plant also, and of more ready growth; it is indeed a truly
hardy perennial, adapted to the open border, in which it will grow
readily, and produce abundance of flowering stems in June and July; the
flowers expand to the sun, and are followed by numerous seed-vessels
which ripen their seeds, by which the plant may be increased, or by
parting its roots in the autumn. Its stalk affords an excellent example
of the _caulis anceps_. We readily embrace the opportunity here afforded
us of correcting an error in regard to the hardiness of the _Sisyrinch.
iridioides_, which we were led into partly by Miller's account, and
partly from observing the plant to survive a mild winter in the open
ground; we have since found that it is a tender plant, and to be ranked
with those of the greenhouse; an additional proof of its being a
distinct species from the one here figured, which has long[7] been
cultivated in our gardens.