Re: Scilla peruviana and its stories
Yes, I think the version Jan has heard was a hybrid of these two. The
Scilla peruviana story I've always known is up to the part about the ship
being named 'The Peru', but that this bulb does in fact hail from the
western Mediterranean. My 1938 Bailey's Manual of Cultivated Plants list
the homeland as the Mediterranean, and notes that the specific name
"perpetuates an old misnomer".
On that back of a Gibraltan stamp featuring this flower, is found the
following text:
"The Giant Squill (family Liliaceae) is the largest and most spectacular of
Gibraltar's Squills. Its large flower-spikes can be seen during March and
April. Although favouring damper areas on the mainland, in Gibraltar it
grows both on the gentler Western slopes and in crevices on the sheer rock
face on the eastern side".
Russ Collins lists it in his Provence-Beyond (Beyond the French Riviera):
http://www.provence-beyond.com/flora/scilla.html
Recently, it has been seen as a florist pot plant here in California,
potted up and blooming happily in March, April or May. It is of the
easiest culture, preferring poorish, stony soil, tolerant of year round
irrigation of gardens but able to survive on mediterranean climate rains
alone. The deepest blue-violet and best looking plant is had when grown in
good, full sun (except in the hottest of climates), but there is
variability of color in some populations. White forms can spontaneously
occur and can eventually cross with the blue to create intermediate color
types.
For those of you who are wondering what we are talking about, see this URL
for a nice photo:
http://www.dipbot.unict.it/orto/0776a.jpg
Sean O.
At 11:40 AM 1/9/01 +1300, Tony & Moira Ryan wrote:
>Jan Smithen wrote:
> >
> > What a wonderful "walk around" your garden Cali. I could really feel the
> > safe and sanctuary ambience it must have. Please attach pictures! Your
> > courtyard sounds beautiful!
> >
> > I read somewhere an amusing story about the Mediterranean native, Scilla
> > peruviana. The reason for its specific name was the fact that the bulbs
> > were being shipped to England on a boat named "the Peru" which foundered
> > off the southern coast. The bulbs floated to the shore where many took
> > root and grew in the sand. Whether true or not, I have no idea.
> >
>Jan
>Strange to say there is a similar tale (?legend) about Nerine sardensis,
>the Gurnsey Lily, which like all Nerines is really South African but is
>said to have been given it name after being found growing in the sands
>of Gurnsey where it had washed ashore from a wreck.
>
>In the 18th Century when many new plants were coming to Europe
>nurserymen and even botanists seem to very often have had very vague
>ideas about the provenance of the new arrivals. Hence, for instance,
>Azalea indica which actually comes not from India but from Japan and I
>have no doubt a good many others..
h o r t u l u s a p t u s - 'a garden suited to its purpose'
Sean A. O'Hara fax (707) 667-1173 sean.ohara@groupmail.com
710 Jean Street, Oakland, CA 94610-1459, U.S.A.
