Home › Contents › The Lyre Flower

The Lyre Flower

Dielytra spectabilis.

THIS extremely elegant plant bears a variety of names, and we may take our choice amongst them. It is a Dielytra, a Diclytra, a Dicentra, a Fumaria, a Corydalis. We prefer the first of these generic designations, because it was adopted on the occasion of the introduction of the plant to this country, and we are, therefore, accustomed to it, and object to any change. Moreover, the two styles on which the original name is founded are conspicuous features of the flower, and there is a pleasing euphony in dielytra that commends it to the ear.

The fame of this plant had gone out into many lands where the plant itself had never been seen. It was never seen alive by Linnaeus, but he described it from dried specimens, and thus filled Europe with the hope of obtaining and keeping it. It was Robert Fortune's good fortune to meet with it in the north of China, and to transmit it safely to the Horticultural Society of London, by whom it was received in 1846. Many a more costly acquisition may be referred to as testimony to the usefulness of this society, but this cheap, common, and very charming plant confers as much honour as any upon those who have enabled every cottager to obtain it to give light to his homely garden. How delicate is its leafage; how elegant the curved raceme bearing its two-winged or lyreshaped pendent flowers of the most exquisite tint of rosy pink! Although hardy and accommodating, this plant needs a little care to ensure a free growth and a plentiful bloom. It will grow in any soil, but is happier in a deep, mellow, sandy loam than in a stiff clay or starving limestone. Moreover, a certain amount of shelter is to be desired for it. On our heavy land in a northern suburb of London we have seen it many times cut down by frost in the month of May, and half blown away by strong wind in June. The finest plant we have ever seen was in a little front court of a small dairy in Highgate, where, for several summers in succession, there was a tuft of dielytra quite four feet high and as much through, the supreme elegance and richness of which we could not hope to describe. It was sheltered by high walls in a very close, snug spot, and no doubt the soil was well drained, warm, and fertile, for it is not often that fine plants of any kind spring out of the "riddlings of creation."

The amateur who has accommodation for a display of spring flowers under glass will find this plant invaluable to associate with hyacinths and early tulips and tazetta narcissi in the conservatory. As a pot-plant it is one of the easiest to manage, for it grows freely in the spring in a sunny greenhouse, and provided it obtains water enough, is pretty sure to flower finely. We have never seen an aphis or any other insect enemy upon the plant, and we found it a very easy matter to produce great specimens in ten and twelve inch pots, although the most useful plants are those that make a bountiful head of bloom in pots of seven to nine inches diameter. The soil that suits fuchsias is the best for dielytras, and nearly the same treatment throughout will suit both those plants; consequently they may with advantage be grown together. A nearly allied plant of great beauty is Dielytra eximia, which has fern-like leafage of a brilliant golden-green colour, and elegant racemes of purplish-red flowers. This also is worthy of pot-culture, and is invaluable for the front of a rockery. Dielytra chrysantha is a fine border-plant producing yellow flowers. A more humble but pleasing little plant is Dielytra cucullaria, which should be planted in a sheltered shady nook of the rockery; it forms a cushion-like tuft, which during summer is covered with racemes of small white flowers. In searching for any of these in a trade list, it will be well to bear in mind that they are often entered under the name Dicentra, and occasionally under Fumaria. They are all fume-worts, and allied to our gay garden flower, the yellow corydalis (Fumaria lutea), which delights to run over an old wall and adorn it with tufts of golden fringe. The annual and biennial kinds of corydalis and fumaria are but little known, but they well deserve the attention of amateurs. The seeds may be sown in autumn or spring, and if the clumps are severely thinned, a good growth and an abundant bloom will be ensured. They are especially useful on rockeries and rough banks, where, having been sown once, they will in many instances obtain a permanent position by means of self-sown seed, which are freely scattered if the plants are left alone. Corydalis glauca and Fumaria capreoluta lutea may be mentioned as good examples of this class of flowers. There are many first-class annuals that maintain themselves by self-sown seeds--as the mignonette, nemophila, eschscholtzia, and others.