Simon de Tovar, a Spanish physician, brought the tuberose to Europe before the year 1594 from the East Indies, where it grows wild in Java and Ceylon, and sent some roots of it to Barnard Paludanus, who first made this flower publicly known, in his annotations on Linschoten’s voyage. The full tuberoses were first procured from seed by one Le Cour, at Leyden, who kept them scarce for some years, by destroying the roots. The propagation of them in most countries is attended with difficulties: but in Italy, Sicily, and Spain, it requires no trouble; and at present the Genoese send a great many roots to England, Holland, and Germany. The oldest botanists classed them among the hyacinths, and their modern name _polianthes tuberose_ was given them by Linnæus in his Hortus Cliffortianus. The auricula, _primula auricula_, grows wild among the long moss covered with snow, on the confines of Switzerland and Steyermark, whence it was brought to our gardens, where, by art and accident, it has produced more varieties than any other species of flower. I do not know who first transplanted it from its native soil. Pluche says only that some roots were pulled up by Walloon merchants, and carried to Brussels. However, this is certain, that it was first cultivated with care by the Flemings, who were very successful in propagating it. In the time of Clusius, most of the varieties of the auricula were scarce. The common fritillary, or chequered lily, _fritillaria meleagris_, was first observed in some parts of France, Hungary, Italy, and other warm countries, and introduced into gardens about the middle of the sixteenth century. At first it was called _lilium variegatum_; but Noel Capperon, an apothecary at Orleans, who collected a great many scarce plants, gave it the name of _fritillaria_, because the red or reddish-brown spots of the flower form regular squares. It was first called _meleagris_ by Dodonæus, because the feathers of that fowl are variegated almost in the same manner. The roots of the magnificent crown imperial, _fritillaria imperialis_, were about the middle of the sixteenth century brought from Persia to Constantinople, and were carried thence to the Emperor’s garden at Vienna, from which they were dispersed all over Europe. This flower was first known by the Persian name _tusac_, until the Italians gave it that of _corona imperialis_, or crown imperial. It has been imagined that the figure of it is to be found represented on the coins of Herod, and that, on this account, it has been considered as the lily so much celebrated in the Scripture. The Persian lily, _fritillaria Persica_, which is nearly related to it, was made known almost about the same time. The bulbs or roots were brought from Susa to Constantinople, and for that reason it was formerly called _lilium Susianum_.