Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/436

420 420 H Y A H Y A years much improvement has been effected in the size of the individual flowers and the breadth of their recurving lobes, as well as in securing increased brilliancy and depth of colour. The peculiarities of the soil and climate of Holland are so very favourable to their production that Dutch florists have made a specialty of the growth of those and other bulbous-rooted flowers. An area of 125 acres is devoted to the growth of hyacinths in the vicinity of Haarlem, and is estimated to bring in a revenue of nearly 30,000. Some notion of the vast number imported into England annually may be formed from the fact that, for the supply of flowering plants to Covent Garden, one market grower alone produces from 00,000 to 70,000 in pots under glass, their blooming period being accelerated by artificial heat, and extending from Christmas onwards until they bloom naturally in the open ground. In the spring flower garden few plants make a more effective display than the hyacinth. Dotted in clumps in the flower borders, and arranged in masses of well-contrasted colours in beds in the flower garden, there are no flowers which impart during their season March and April a gayer tone to the parterre. The bulbs are rarely grown a second time, either for indoor or outdoor culture, though with care they might be utilized for the latter purpose ; and hence the enormous numbers which are procured each re curring year from Holland. The first hyacinths were single-flowered, but towards the close of the 17th century double-flowered ones began to appear, and till a recent period these bulbs were the most esteemed. At the present time, however, the single- flowered sorts are in the ascendant, as they produce more regular and symmetrical spikes of blossom, the flowers being closely set and more or less 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 pre ferred. Few if any of the original kinds are now in cultiva tion, a succession of new and improved varieties having been raised, the demand for which is regulated in some respects by fashion. At the present day our nurserymen offer in their annual catalogues of select sorts between two and three hundred distinct varieties. The earliest of all the hyacinths, and one which is very valuable for forcing into flower in winter, is called the white Roman hyacinth. Tt is small-flowered, but very sweet, and, if potted in September or October, as soon as the bulbs can be procured after importation, may easily be had in blossom by Christmas, when white flowers are so much sought after. Of course this is done with the aid of a forcing-house, but a very high temperature is not required. The best soil for pot hyacinths is made up of two parts turfy loam, one part decayed leaf-mould, and one part well-decomposed cow dung, with sand enough to make it porous, and with sufficient drainage. The name of hyacinth is applied to several other plants having bulbous roots. The Cape hyacinth is Scilla corym- bosa ; the grape hyacinth, Muscari botryoides ; the tassel hyacinth, Muscari comosum, and the feathered hyacinth, Muscari comosum monstrosum ; the starch hyacinth, Muscari racemosum; the star hyacinth, Scilla amoena; the lily hyacinth, flcilla Liliohyatinthus ; the hyacinth of Peru, /Scilla peruviana ; the wild hyacinth or blue-bell, Hyadn- thus non script us; the wild hyacinth of America, Camassia esculenta ; the Missouri hyacinth, Hesperoscordum lacteum ; and the native hyacinth of Tasmania, Thelymitra media. HYACINTHUS, a mythological figure connected with the Hyacinthia, a festival celebrated by the Spartans in honour of Apollo of Amyclse, whose primitive image, stand ing on a throne, is described by Pausanias (iii. 19, 4). The legend attached to the festival is to the effect that Hyacin- thus, a beautiful youth beloved by the god, was accidentally killed by him with a discus. From his blood sprang a dark- coloured flower called after him hyacinth, on whose petals is the word alou, alas. The myth, like that of Linus (v. Brugsch, Die Adonis-Klaye und das Linos-Lied), is one of the many popular representations of the beautiful spring vegetation slain by the hot sun of summer (which is here and in many other legends denoted by the symbol of a discus). The sister of Hyacinthus is Polybooa, the much nourishing fertility of the rich Amyclsean valley ; while his brother ia Cynortas, the rising of the dog (the hot) star. But with the death of the spring is united the idea of its certain resuscitation in a new year ; like Dionysus, the hero is not merely dead but elevated to heaven. The festival took place on the three hottest days of summer, 7th to 10th of the month Hecatombeus (which was called in Sicily Hyacinthius), and its rites were a mixture of mourning and rejoicing (Athen,, iv. 17). HYADES, five stars forming the head of the larger con stellation, the Bull. Their rising along with the sun marks the opening of the rainy season, hence their name Hyades the Rainy. As mythological figures they were said to be daughters of Atlas, who as a reward for some pious act were translated to heaven. The nature of the deed is variously stated: sometimes it is their long-continued grief for their brother Hyas, who was slain by a snake (or boar or lion) ; at other times it is their having acted as nurses of Dionysus Hyes. In the latter case they are counted as nymphs of Nysa. When their charge was threatened by Lycurgus they fled with him to Thetis or to Ino in Thebes. They are also described as nymphs of Dodona, who acted as nurses of the infant Zeus. In any case their character as clouds and rain-givers is obvious. Their number is sometimes given as two, also as three, especially in Attica, which leads Brunn to see them in the pediment of the Parthenon in the figures usually spoken of as &quot; The Fates.&quot; HYAENA (Hycenida&amp;gt; a family of digitigrade carni vorous mammals, approaching the Fdida; or cats in the character of the dentition, while resembling the Viverrichc. or civets in the possession of a glandular pouch beneath the anus, and therefore usually classed as a transition group between these two families. It comprises a single genus (Hyaena), and three species, which resemble each other and differ from all other carnivores in having both pairs of feet with four toos each. They are further characterized by the greater length of their fore legs as compared with those behind, by their well-developed although non-retractile claws, by their prickly cat-liks tongue, and by the enormous strength of their jaws and teeth, which enables them to break open the hardest bones, and to retain what they have seized with the most unrelaxing grip. The Striped Hyaona (Hyaena striata) is the most widely distributed and best known form, being found throughout India, Persia, Asia Minor, and the northern half of Africa, while, if the strand wolf (llycena mllosa}oi the Cape colonists is only a varietyof this species, as many naturalists suppose, its range will be thereby extended to the southern extremity of the African continent. It resembles a wolf in size, and is of a greyish-brown colour, marked with indistinct longi tudinal stripes of a darker hue, while the legs are trans versely striped as in the zebra. The hairs on its body are long, especially on the ridge of the neck and back, where they form a distinct mane, which is continued along the tail. The hyaena is nocturnal in its habits, preferring by day the gloom of caves and ruins, or of the burrovs which it occasionally forms, but coming forth at sunset to make night hideous with its unearthly howling, which, when the