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HYACINTH (Gr. ualavOor)

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 25 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HYACINTH (Gr. ualavOor) , also called JACINTH (through Ital. giacinto), one of the most popular of See also:spring See also:garden See also:flowers. It was in cultivation See also:prior to 1597, at which date it is mentioned by See also:Gerard. Rea in 1665 mentions several single and See also:double varieties as being then in See also:English gardens, and See also:Justice in 1754 describes upwards of fifty single-flowered varieties, and nearly one See also:hundred double-flowered ones, as a selection of the best from the catalogues of two then celebrated Dutch growers. One of the Dutch sorts, called La Reine de Femmes, a single See also:white, is said to have produced from See also:thirty-four to thirty-eight flowers in a spike, and on its first See also:appearance to have sold for 50 guilders a bulb; while one called Overwinnaar, or Conqueror, a double See also:blue, sold at first for See also:loo guilders, Gloria Mundi for 500 guilders, and Koning Saloman for 600 guilders. Several sorts are at that date mentioned as blooming well in See also:water-glasses. Justice relates that he himself raised several very valuable double-flowered kinds from seeds, which many of the sorts he describes are noted for producing freely. The See also:original of the cultivated hyacinth, See also:Hyacinthus orientalis, a native of See also:Greece and See also:Asia See also:Minor, is by comparison an insignificant plant, bearing on a spike only a few small, narrow-lobed, washy blue flowers, resembling in See also:form those of our See also:common bluebell. So See also:great has been the improvement effected by the florists, and chiefly by the Dutch, that the See also:modern hyacinth would scarcely be recognized as the descendant of the type above referred to, the spikes being See also:long and dense, composed of a large number of flowers; the spikes produced by strong bulbs not unfrequently measure 6 to 9 in. in length and from 7 to 9 in. in circumference, with the flowers closely set on from bottom to See also:top. Of See also:late years much improvement has been effected in the See also:size of the individual flowers and the breadth of their recurving lobes, as well as in securing increased brilliancy and See also:depth of See also:colour. The peculiarities of the See also:soil and See also:climate of See also:Holland are so very favourable to their See also:production that Dutch florists have made a specialty of the growth of those and other bulbous-rooted flowers. Hundreds of acres are devoted to the growth of hyacinths in the vicinity of See also:Haarlem, and bring in a See also:revenue of several hundreds of thousands of pounds. Some notion of the vast number imported into See also:England annually may be formed from the fact that, for the See also:supply of flowering See also:plants to Covent Garden, one See also:market grower alone produces from 60,000 to 70,000 in pots under See also:glass, their blooming See also:period being accelerated by artificial See also:heat, and extending from See also:Christmas onwards until they See also:bloom naturally in the open ground.

In the spring See also:

flower garden few plants make a more effective display than the hyacinth. Dotted in clumps in the flower See also:borders, and arranged in masses of well-contrasted See also:colours in beds in the flower garden, there are no flowers which impart during their See also:season—See also:March and See also:April—a gayer See also:tone to the See also:parterre. The bulbs are rarely grown a second See also:time, either for indoor or outdoor culture, though with care they might be utilized for the latter purpose; and hence the enormous See also:numbers which are procured each recurring See also:year from Holland. The first hyacinths were single-flowered, but towards the See also:close of the 17th See also:century double-flowered ones began to appear, and till a See also:recent period these bulbs were the most esteemed. At the See also:present time, however, the single-flowered sorts are in the ascendant, as they produce more See also:regular and symmetrical spikes of blossom, the flowers being closely set and more or less See also:horizontal in direction, while most of the double sorts have the bells distant and dependent, so that the spike is loose and by comparison ineffective. For pot culture, and for growth in water-glasses especially, the single-flowered sorts are greatly to be preferred. Few if any of the original kinds are now in cultivation, a See also:succession of new and improved varieties having been raised, the demand for which is regulated in some respects by See also:fashion. The hyacinth delights in a See also:rich See also:light sandy soil. The Dutch in-corporate freely See also:witu t,oeir naturally light soil a compost consisting of one-third coarse See also:sea or See also:river See also:sand, one-third rotten cow dung without See also:litter and one-third See also:leaf-See also:mould. The soil thus renovated retains its qualities for six or seven years, but hyacinths are not planted upon the same See also:place for two years successively, intermediary crops of See also:narcissus, See also:crocus or tulips being taken. A See also:good compost for hyacinths is sandy See also:loam, decayed leaf-mould, rotten cow dung and See also:sharp sand in equal parts, the whole being collected and laid up in a heap and turned over occasionally. Well-drained beds made up of this soil, and refreshed with a portion of new compost annually, would grow the hyacinth to perfection.

The best time to plant the bulbs is towards the end of See also:

September and during See also:October; they should be arranged in rows, 6 to 8 in. asunder, there being four rows in each See also:bed. The bulbs should be sunk about 4 to 6 in. deep, with a small quantity of clean sand placed below and around each of them. The beds should be covered with decayed tan-bark, coco-See also:nut fibre or See also:half-rotten dung litter. As the flower-stems appear, they are tied to rigid but slender stakes to preserve them from See also:accident. If the bulbs are at all prized, the stems should be broken off as soon as the flowering is over, so as not to exhaust the bulbs; the leaves, however, must be allowed to grow on till matured, but as soon as they assume a yellow colour, the bulbs are taken up, the leaves cut off near their See also:base, and the bulbs laid out in a dry, See also:airy, shady place to ripen, after which they are cleaned of loose See also:earth and skin, ready for storing. It is the practice in Holland, about a See also:month after the bloom, or when the tips of the leaves assume a withered appearance, to take up the bulbs, and to See also:lay them sideways on the ground, covering them with an See also:inch or two of earth. About three See also:weeks later they are again taken up and cleaned. In the See also:store-See also:room they should be kept dry, well-aired and apart from each other. Few plants are better adapted than the hyacinth for pot culture as greenhouse decorative plants; and by the aid of forcing they may be had in bloom as See also:early as Christmas. They flower fairly well in 5-in. pots, the stronger bulbs in 6-in. pots. To bloom at Christmas, they should be potted early in September, in a compost resembling that already recommended for the open-See also:air beds; and, to keep up a succession of bloom, others should be potted at intervals of a few weeks till the See also:middle or end of See also:November. The tops of the bulbs should be about level with the soil, and if a little sand is put immediately around them so much the better.

The pots should be set in an open place on a dry hard bed of ashes, and be covered over to a depth of 6 or 8 in. with the same material or with fibre or soil; and when the roots are well See also:

developed, which will take from six to eight weeks, they may be removed to a See also:frame, and gradually exposed to light, and then placed in a forcing See also:pit in a heat of from 6o to 70°. When the flowers are fairly open, they may be removed to the See also:green-See also:house or conservatory. The hyacinth may be very successfully grown in glasses for See also:ornament in dwelling-houses. The glasses are filled to the See also:neck with See also:rain or even tap water, a few lumps of See also:charcoal being dropped into them. The bulbs are placed in the hollow provided for them, so that their base just touches the water. This may be done in September or October. They are then set in a dark See also:cupboard for a few weeks till roots are freely produced, and then gradually exposed to light. The early-flowering single white See also:Roman hyacinth, a small-growing pure white variety, remarkable for its fragrance, is well adapted for forcing, as it can be had in bloom if required by November. For windows it grows well in the small glasses commonly used for crocuses; and for decorative purposes should be planted about five bulbs in a 5-in. pot, or in pans holding a dozen each. If grown for cut flowers it can be planted thickly in boxes of any convenient size. It is highly esteemed during the See also:winter months by florists. The See also:Spanish hyacinth (H. amethystinus) and H. azureus are charming little bulbs for growing in masses in the See also:rock garden or front of the flower border.

The older botanists included in the genus Hyacinthus See also:

species of Muscari, Scilla and other genera of bulbous See also:Liliaceae, and the name of hyacinth is still popularly applied to several other bulbous plants. Thus Muscari botryoides is the See also:grape hyacinth, 6 in., blue or white, the handsomest; M. moschatum, the See also:musk hyacinth, so in., has See also:peculiar livid greenish-yellow flowers and a strong musky odour; M. comosum See also:var. monstrosum, the See also:feather hyacinth, bears sterile flowers broken up into a featherlike See also:mass; M. racemosum, the See also:starch hyacinth, is a native with deep blue See also:plum-scented flowers. The Cape hyacinth is Galtonia candicans, a magnificent border plant, 3-4 ft. high, with large drooping white See also:bell-shaped flowers; the See also:star hyacinth, Scilla amoena; the Peruvian hyacinth or Cuban See also:lily, S. peruviana, a native of the Mediterranean region, to which See also:Linnaeus gave the species name peruviana on a mistaken See also:assumption of its origin; the See also:wild hyacinth or blue-bell, known variously as See also:Endymion nonscriptum, Hyacinthus nonscriptus or Scilla nutans; the wild hyacinth of western See also:North Amercia, Camassia ,:.;culenta.

End of Article: HYACINTH (Gr. ualavOor)

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