it. Hort. Kew. v. 1. p. 421._ _Retz. Obs. Bot. Fasc. 2.
t. 1._

COLCHICUM vernum hispanicum. _Bauh. Pin. 69._ Medowe Saffron of the
spring. _Park. Parad. p. 158-159. f. 7._

[Illustration: No 153]

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._

_Cal._ 1-phyllus, nudus. _Petala_ 5 unguiculata. _Caps._ oblonga
1-locularis.

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

SAPONARIA _Ocymoides_ calycibus cylindricis villosis, caulibus
dichotomis procumbentibus. _Linn. Syst. Veg. ed. 14. Murr._ _Jacq.
Fl. Austr. v. 5. app. t. 23._ _Ait. Hort. Kew. v. 2. p. 87._

LYCHNIS vel Ocymoides repens montanum. _Bauh. Pin. 206._

[Illustration: No 154]

The _Saponaria Ocymoides_ has been figured in the appendix to the fifth
volume of the _Flora Austriaca_ in its wild state, as in similar works
every plant is expected to be; our figure represents a branch of it
only, taken (as all ours in this work professedly are) from a garden
specimen which grew on a wall of a particular construction in our garden
at Brompton, and of which it was the principal ornament through the
mon