Modeste flower of Grape hyacinth

Small flower of the beginning of spring the Grape hyacinth strews of its small blue touches the green carpet of the rising herbs.

The grape hyacinth presented here is the racemosum Grape hyacinth (Grape hyacinth in bunch)

You will see at the bottom of page the scan of 2 plants, the one in simple bulb, and the other one in the course of reduction,
where we understand that he can spread quickly.

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GRAPE HYACINTH, Genre of monocotylédonées plants of the family of Asphodélées de Jussieu, and Hexandrie monogynie of Linné, offering for constituent characters: a simple périanthe, monophylle, persistent, cylindrico-ovoïdë, blown in the middle, repressed in the summit, in six short divisions; six stamens shorter than the périanthe, inserted on its base; anthères bilobées, elongated; ovary up, spherical; equal style in length in stamens, in trilobé stigma; capsule triloculaire, in acute angles; two seeds in every changing room.
The genre Grape hyacinth, established by Tournefort and gathered by Linné in Hyacinthus, was since removed from it by Desfontaines, and finally definitively adopted by all the botanists. It contains about ten species approximately. It is small plants with bulbous root, with linear, radical leaves, with flowers in ear, arranged on the handle, that takes out, as leaves, of the center of bulb. They are quite European, and four or five natives in France. We give here the description four more remarkable.
Musky grape hyacinth, moschatum Grape hyacinth, Willd.; ambrosiacum Mr., Red. Mœnch. Linear leaves of ten (inches and more length, spread over the ground, almost flat at the top, canaliculées on their base; naked, cylindrical handle, from eight to ten inches of height, ended with twenty or thirty potbellied, horizontal, yellowish flowers, tightened in the summit, ended with six teeth, and spreading a pleasant smell, as musky.
This Grape hyacinth grows naturally in the South of France; some authors however, Clusius among others, think that it was introduced towards there, the middle of the sixteenth century and imported by the East. Be that as it may, we hurried to seize it to cultivate it in our gardens, where its flowers charm our sense of smell. He asks for no care, if it is not a light, a little shaded ground.
Hairy grape hyacinth, vulgarly Hyacinth has Quiff, Vacier, comosum Grape hyacinth, Mill. Willd. Of three or four leaves spread over the ground, canaliculées on the base, smooth exceptionally, rather wide, little onduleuses, from twelve to fifteen inches of length, takes out a handle from fifteen to eighteen inches of top, naked inferiorly, cylindrical, charged in the two thirds of its height approximately from fifty to eighty flowers in most, a little bit bony, lengthened(bony, stretched out,jagged, lengthened,jagged, stretched out), in clusters, by a reddish blue, in peduncle accompanied with a bractée girl; surmounted by another cluster of sterile flowers, in very long peduncles, the whole of a beautiful blue; this plant is common in France on the edge of wood, in the meadows, and even in fields. We cultivate it in gardens because of the attractive effect of the flowers, it gives in April and in May.
We consider as variety of this species a Grape hyacinth that we know under the vulgar names of Hyacinth of Siena, Lilac of ground, monstrous Grape hyacinth (Hyacinthus monstruosus, Linn.). It is a singular and curious plant, all the flowers of which underwent such a degeneration, or rather such a metamorphosis, as we can distinguish any more no organ there. It is the meeting, of nets ( failed stamens) branched out, long, worn by short colored peduncles, that trains an elegant blue-lilac panache, the aspect of which is very pleasant. This charming monstrousness grows naturally in Italy, near Siena and near Pavie, and in summer introduced for a long time into our gardens, where it is not more difficult than the previous ones for the care and it be in hiding.
Grape hyacinth in bunch, vulgarly Garlic of dog, racemosum Grape hyacinth, Mill. Leaves; jonciformes, tenuous, hanging, longer than the handle; this one raised( (sometimes double), hail, about eight inches of height, ending in a short ear from twenty five to thirty flowers in most, egg-shaped, small, in short peduncles, tilted and as imbricated, of a beautiful blue, often raised(found) from a whitish edge. Common in France, in the cultivated places, blooms( in April and in May.
Grape hyacinth in ear, Grape hyacinth botryoïdes, Willd. Mill. This plant offers a lot of resemblance with the one that we have just described, but it differs from it by constant characters, which are wider, firmer, raised leaves, always shorter than the handle, the egg-shaped flowers, always dressed in a white border and training a lengthened oval ear, from which the lower flowers are more distant between them than the superiors. She believes naturally in the South of France, in Switzerland, in Italy, and blooms as her congeners in April and in May. All these plants deserve the honors of the culture in our flowerbeds.
( C. Lem.)

Other definition of the dictionary of agriculture of J.A. Barral published in 1889

GRAPE HYACINTH. - Native bulbous Plant which we also name Lilac of ground and which belongs to the family of Liliacées.
We know two species of Grape hyacinths :
1° The comosum Grape hyacinth or Hyacinthus comosus, in very long but narrow, rough leaves on edges and spread over the ground, in flowers in terminal cowlicks, for a long time pédicellées and of a clear purple blue. This species is especially common in the Southern parts of the country; she is the only one who produces seeds. Its fruits are capsulaires for three carpelles and open in three changing rooms.
2° The racemosum Grape hyacinth, in jonciformes, narrow, canaliculées leaves and smoothed, in flowers in short and compact cluster, by a dark blue.

These plants are often plentiful in Oats and Spring barleys cultivated on the calcareous grounds. They are of a rather difficult destruction, because their bulbs are situated almost always below the point which plows reach in the ordinary plowings. We prevent the multiplication of it by operating plowings of breaking up and by making follow the plow by women asked to collect onions. The harrowings which require the weeded cultures also damage their distribution. G. H.