Chapter M: O. B. C (5)

HUYSMANS, the name of four Flemish painters who matriculated in the Antwerp gild in the 17th century. Cornelis the elder, apprenticed in 1633, passed for a mastership in 1636, and remained obscure. Jacob, apprenticed to Frans Wouters in 1650, wandered to England towards the close of the reign of Charles II., and competed with Lely as a fashionable portrait painter. He executed a portrait of the queen, Catherine of Braganza, now in the national portrait gallery, and Horace Walpole assigns to him the likeness of Lady Bellasys, catalogued at Hampton Court as a work of Lely. His portrait of Izaak Walton in the National Gallery shows a disposition to imitate the styles of Rubens and Van Dyke. According to most accounts he died in London in 1696. Jan Baptist Huysmans, born at Antwerp in 1654, matriculated in 1676-1677, and died there in 1715-1716. He was younger brother to Cornelis Huysmans the second, who was born at Antwerp in 1648, and educated by Gaspar de Wit and Jacob van Artois. Of Jan Baptist little or nothing has been preserved, except that he registered numerous apprentices at Antwerp, and painted a landscape dated 1697 now in the Brussels museum. Cornelis the second is the only master of the name of Huysmans whose talent was largely acknowledged. He received lessons from two artists, one of whom was familiar with the Roman art of the Poussins, whilst the other inherited the scenic style of the school of Rubens. He combined the two in a rich, highly coloured, and usually effective style, which, however, was not free from monotony. Seldom attempting anything but woodside views with fancy backgrounds, half Italian, half Flemish, he painted with great facility, and left numerous examples behind. At the outset of his career he practised at Malines, where he married in 1682, and there too he entered into some business connexion with van der Meulen, for whom he painted some backgrounds. In 1706 he withdrew to Antwerp, where he resided till 1717, returning then to Malines, where he died on the 1st of June 1727.

Though most of his pictures were composed for cabinets rather than
churches, he sometimes emulated van Artois in the production of large
sacred pieces, and for many years his "Christ on the Road to Emmaus"
adorned the choir of Notre Dame of Malines. In the gallery of Nantes,
where three of his small landscapes are preserved, there hangs an
"Investment of Luxembourg," by van der Meulen, of which he is known to
have laid in the background. The national galleries of London and
Edinburgh contain each one example of his skill. Blenheim, too, and
other private galleries in England, possess one or more of his
pictures. But most of his works are on the European continent.

HUYSMANS, JORIS KARL (1848-1907), French novelist, was born at Paris on the 5th of February 1848. He belonged to a family of artists of Dutch extraction; he entered the ministry of the interior, and was pensioned after thirty years' service. His earliest venture in literature, _Le Drageoir à épices_ (1874), contained stories and short prose poems showing the influence of Baudelaire. _Marthe_ (1876), the life of a courtesan, was published in Brussels, and Huysmans contributed a story, "Sac au dos," to _Les Soirées de Médan_, the collection of stories of the Franco-German war published by Zola. He then produced a series of novels of everyday life, including _Les Soeurs Vatard_ (1879), _En Ménage_ (1881), and _À vau-l'eau_ (1882), in which he outdid Zola in minute and uncompromising realism. He was influenced, however, more directly by Flaubert and the brothers de Goncourt than by Zola. In _L'Art moderne_ (1883) he gave a careful study of impressionism and in _Certains_ (1889) a series of studies of contemporary artists, _À Rebours_ (1884), the history of the morbid tastes of a decadent aristocrat, des Esseintes, created a literary sensation, its caricature of literary and artistic symbolism covering much of the real beliefs of the leaders of the aesthetic revolt. In _Là-Bas_ Huysmans's most characteristic hero, Durtal, makes his appearance. Durtal is occupied in writing the life of Gilles de Rais; the insight he gains into Satanism is supplemented by modern Parisian students of the black art; but already there are signs of a leaning to religion in the sympathetic figures of the religious bell-ringer of Saint Sulpice and his wife. _En Route_ (1895) relates the strange conversion of Durtal to mysticism and Catholicism in his retreat to La Trappe. In _La Cathédrale_ (1898), Huysmans's symbolistic interpretation of the cathedral of Chartres, he develops his enthusiasm for the purity of Catholic ritual. The life of _Sainte Lydwine de Schiedam_ (1901), an exposition of the value of suffering, gives further proof of his conversion; and _L'Oblat_ (1903) describes Durtal's retreat to the Val des Saints, where he is attached as an oblate to a Benedictine monastery. Huysmans was nominated by Edmond de Goncourt as a member of the Académie des Goncourt. He died as a devout Catholic, after a long illness of cancer in the palate on the 13th of May 1907. Before his death he destroyed his unpublished MSS. His last book was _Les Foules de Lourdes_ (1906).

See Arthur Symons, _Studies in two Literatures_ (1897) and _The
Symbolist Movement in Literature_ (1899); Jean Lionnet in _L'Évolution
des idées_ (1903); Eugène Gilbert in _France et Belgique_ (1905); J.
Sargeret in _Les Grands convertis_ (1906).

HUYSUM, JAN VAN (1682-1749), Dutch painter, was born at Amsterdam in 1682, and died in his native city on the 8th of February 1749. He was the son of Justus van Huysum, who is said to have been expeditious in decorating doorways, screens and vases. A picture by this artist is preserved in the gallery of Brunswick, representing Orpheus and the Beasts in a wooded landscape, and here we have some explanation of his son's fondness for landscapes of a conventional and Arcadian kind; for Jan van Huysum, though skilled as a painter of still life, believed himself to possess the genius of a landscape painter. Half his pictures in public galleries are landscapes, views of imaginary lakes and harbours with impossible ruins and classic edifices, and woods of tall and motionless trees--the whole very glossy and smooth, and entirely lifeless. The earliest dated work of this kind is that of 1717, in the Louvre, a grove with maidens culling flowers near a tomb, ruins of a portico, and a distant palace on the shores of a lake bounded by mountains.

It is doubtful whether any artist ever surpassed van Huysum in representing fruit and flowers. It has been said that his fruit has no savour and his flowers have no perfume--in other words, that they are hard and artificial--but this is scarcely true. In substance fruit and flower are delicate and finished imitations of nature in its more subtle varieties of matter. The fruit has an incomparable blush of down, the flowers have a perfect delicacy of tissue. Van Huysum, too, shows supreme art in relieving flowers of various colours against each other, and often against a light and transparent background. He is always bright, sometimes even gaudy. Great taste and much grace and elegance are apparent in the arrangement of bouquets and fruit in vases adorned with bas reliefs or in baskets on marble tables. There is exquisite and faultless finish everywhere. But what van Huysum has not is the breadth, the bold effectiveness, and the depth of thought of de Heem, from whom he descends through Abraham Mignon.

Some of the finest of van Huysum's fruit and flower pieces have been
in English private collections: those of 1723 in the earl of
Ellesmere's gallery, others of 1730-1732 in the collections of Hope
and Ashburton. One of the best examples is now in the National Gallery
(1736-1737). No public museum has finer and more numerous specimens
than the Louvre, which boasts of four landscapes and six panels with
still life; then come Berlin and Amsterdam with four fruit and flower
pieces; then St Petersburg, Munich, Hanover, Dresden, the Hague,
Brunswick, Vienna, Carlsruhe and Copenhagen.

HWANG HO [HOANG HO], the second largest river in China. It is known to foreigners as the Yellow river--a name which is a literal translation of the Chinese. It rises among the Kuenlun mountains in central Asia, its head-waters being in close proximity to those of the Yangtsze-Kiang. It has a total length of about 2400 m. and drains an area of approximately 400,000 sq. m. The main stream has its source in two lakes named Tsaring-nor and Oring-nor, lying about 35° N., 97° E., and after flowing with a south-easterly course it bends sharply to the north-west and north, entering China in the province of Kansuh in lat. 36°. After passing Lanchow-fu, the capital of this province, the river takes an immense sweep to the north and north-east, until it encounters the rugged barrier ranges that here run north and south through the provinces of Shansi and Chihli. By these ranges it is forced due south for 500 m., forming the boundary between the provinces of Shansi and Shensi, until it finds an outlet eastwards at Tung Kwan--a pass which for centuries has been renowned as the gate of Asia, being indeed the sole commercial passage between central China and the West. At Tung Kwan the river is joined by its only considerable affluent in China proper, the Wei (Wei-ho), which drains the large province of Shensi, and the combined volume of water continues its way at first east and then north-east across the great plain to the sea. At low water in the winter season the discharge is only about 36,000 cub. ft. per second, whereas during the summer flood it reaches 116,000 ft. or more. The amount of sediment carried down is very large, though no accurate observations have been made. In the account of Lord Macartney's embassy, which crossed the Yellow river in 1792, it was calculated to be 17,520 million cub. ft. a year, but this is considered very much over the mark. Two reasons, however, combine to render it probable that the sedimentary matter is very large in proportion to the volume of water: the first being the great fall, and the consequently rapid current over two-thirds of the river's course; the second that the drainage area is nearly all covered with deposits of loess, which, being very friable, readily gives way before the rainfall and is washed down in large quantity. The ubiquity of this loess or yellow earth, as the Chinese call it, has in fact given its name both to the river which carries it in solution and to the sea (the Yellow Sea) into which it is discharged. It is calculated by Dr Guppy (_Journal of China Branch of Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. xvi.) that the sediment brought down by the three northern rivers of China, viz., the Yangtsze, the Hwang-ho and the Peiho, is 24,000 million cub. ft. per annum, and is sufficient to fill up the whole of the Yellow Sea and the Gulf of Pechili in the space of about 36,000 years.

Unlike the Yangtsze, the Hwang-ho is of no practical value for
navigation. The silt and sand form banks and bars at the mouth, the
water is too shallow in winter and the current is too strong in
summer, and, further, the bed of the river is continually shifting. It
is this last feature which has earned for the river the name "China's
sorrow." As the silt-laden waters debouch from the rocky bed of the
upper reaches on to the plains, the current slackens, and the coarser
detritus settles on the bottom. By degrees the bed rises, and the
people build embankments to prevent the river from overflowing. As the
bed rises the embankments must be raised too, until the stream is
flowing many feet above the level of the surrounding country. As time
goes on the situation becomes more and more dangerous; finally, a
breach occurs, and the whole river pours over the country, carrying
destruction and ruin with it. If the breach cannot be repaired the
river leaves its old channel entirely and finds a new exit to the sea
along the line of least resistance. Such in brief has been the story
of the river since the dawn of Chinese history. At various times it
has discharged its waters alternately on one side or the other of the
great mass of mountains forming the promontory of Shantung, and by
mouths as far apart from each other as 500 m. At each change it has
worked havoc and disaster by covering the cultivated fields with 2 or
3 ft. of sand and mud.

A great change in the river's course occurred in 1851, when a breach
was made in the north embankment near Kaifengfu in Honan. At this
point the river bed was some 25 ft. above the plain; the water
consequently forsook the old channel entirely and poured over the
level country, finally seizing on the bed of a small river called the
Tsing, and thereby finding an exit to the sea. Since that time the new
channel thus carved out has remained the proper course of the river,
the old or southerly channel being left quite dry. It required some
fifteen or more years to repair damages from this outbreak, and to
confine the stream by new embankments. After that there was for a time
comparative immunity from inundations, but in 1882 fresh outbursts
again began. The most serious of all took place in 1887, when it
appeared probable that there would be again a permanent change in the
river's course. By dint of great exertions, however, the government
succeeded in closing the breach, though not till January 1889, and not
until there had been immense destruction of life and property. The
outbreak on this occasion occurred, as all the more serious outbreaks
have done, in Honan, a few miles west of the city of Kaifengfu. The
stream poured itself over the level and fertile country to the
southwards, sweeping whole villages before it, and converting the
plain into one vast lake. The area affected was not less than 50,000
sq. m. and the loss of life was computed at over one million. Since
1887 there have been a series of smaller outbreaks, mostly at points
lower down and in the neighbourhood of Chinanfu, the capital of
Shantung. These perpetually occurring disasters entail a heavy expense
on the government; and from the mere pecuniary point of view it would
well repay them to call in the best foreign engineering skill
available, an expedient, however, which has not commended itself to
the Chinese authorities. (G. J.)

HWICCE, one of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Its exact dimensions are unknown; they probably coincided with those of the old diocese of Worcester, the early bishops of which bore the title "Episcopus Hwicciorum." It would therefore include Worcestershire, Gloucestershire except the Forest of Dean, the southern half of Warwickshire, and the neighbourhood of Bath. The name Hwicce survives in Wychwood in Oxfordshire and Whichford in Warwickshire. These districts, or at all events the southern portion of them, were according to the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, _s.a._ 577, originally conquered by the West Saxons under Ceawlin. In later times, however, the kingdom of the Hwicce appears to have been always subject to Mercian supremacy, and possibly it was separated from Wessex in the time of Edwin. The first kings of whom we read were two brothers, Eanhere and Eanfrith, probably contemporaries of Wulfhere. They were followed by a king named Osric, a contemporary of Æthelred, and he by a king Oshere. Oshere had three sons who reigned after him, Æthelheard, Æthelweard and Æthelric. The two last named appear to have been reigning in the year 706. At the beginning of Offa's reign we again find the kingdom ruled by three brothers, named Eanberht, Uhtred and Aldred, the two latter of whom lived until about 780. After them the title of king seems to have been given up. Their successor Æthelmund, who was killed in a campaign against Wessex in 802, is described only as an earl. The district remained in possession of the rulers of Mercia until the fall of that kingdom. Together with the rest of English Mercia it submitted to King Alfred about 877-883 under Earl Æthelred, who possibly himself belonged to the Hwicce. No genealogy or list of kings has been preserved, and we do not know whether the dynasty was connected with that of Wessex or Mercia.

See Bede, _Historia eccles._ (edited by C. Plummer) iv. 13 (Oxford,
1896); W. de G. Birch, _Cartularium Saxonicum_, 43, 51, 76, 85, 116,
117, 122, 163, 187, 232, 233, 238 (Oxford, 1885-1889).
(F. G. M. B.)

HYACINTH (Gr. hyakinthos), also called JACINTH (through Ital. _giacinto_), one of the most popular of spring garden flowers. It was in cultivation prior to 1597, at which date it is mentioned by Gerard. Rea in 1665 mentions several single and double varieties as being then in English gardens, and Justice in 1754 describes upwards of fifty single-flowered varieties, and nearly one hundred double-flowered ones, as a selection of the best from the catalogues of two then celebrated Dutch growers. One of the Dutch sorts, called La Reine de Femmes, a single white, is said to have produced from thirty-four to thirty-eight flowers in a spike, and on its first appearance to have sold for 50 guilders a bulb; while one called Overwinnaar, or Conqueror, a double blue, sold at first for 100 guilders, Gloria Mundi for 500 guilders, and Koning Saloman for 600 guilders. Several sorts are at that date mentioned as blooming well in water-glasses. Justice relates that he himself raised several very valuable double-flowered kinds from seeds, which many of the sorts he describes are noted for producing freely.

The original of the cultivated hyacinth, _Hyacinthus orientalis_, a native of Greece and Asia Minor, is by comparison an insignificant plant, bearing on a spike only a few small, narrow-lobed, washy blue flowers, resembling in form those of our common blue-bell. So great has been the improvement effected by the florists, and chiefly by the Dutch, that the modern hyacinth would scarcely be recognized as the descendant of the type above referred to, the spikes being long and dense, composed of a large number of flowers; the spikes produced by strong bulbs not unfrequently measure 6 to 9 in. in length and from 7 to 9 in. in circumference, with the flowers closely set on from bottom to top. Of late 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. Hundreds of acres are devoted to the growth of hyacinths in the vicinity of Haarlem, and bring in a revenue of several hundreds of thousands of pounds. 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 60,000 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 recurring 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 preferred. Few if any of the original kinds are now in cultivation, a succession of new and improved varieties having been raised, the demand for which is regulated in some respects by fashion.

The hyacinth delights in a rich light sandy soil. The Dutch
incorporate freely with their naturally light soil a compost
consisting of one-third coarse sea or river sand, one-third rotten cow
dung without litter and one-third leaf-mould. The soil thus renovated
retains its qualities for six or seven years, but hyacinths are not
planted upon the same place for two years successively, intermediary
crops of narcissus, crocus or tulips being taken. A good compost for
hyacinths is sandy loam, decayed leaf-mould, rotten cow dung and sharp
sand in equal parts, the whole being collected and laid up in a heap
and turned over occasionally. Well-drained beds made up of this soil,
and refreshed with a portion of new compost annually, would grow the
hyacinth to perfection. The best time to plant the bulbs is towards
the end of September and during October; they should be arranged in
rows, 6 to 8 in. asunder, there being four rows in each bed. The bulbs
should be sunk about 4 to 6 in. deep, with a small quantity of clean
sand placed below and around each of them. The beds should be covered
with decayed tan-bark, coco-nut fibre or half-rotten dung litter. As
the flower-stems appear, they are tied to rigid but slender stakes to
preserve them from accident. If the bulbs are at all prized, the stems
should be broken off as soon as the flowering is over, so as not to
exhaust the bulbs; the leaves, however, must be allowed to grow on
till matured, but as soon as they assume a yellow colour, the bulbs
are taken up, the leaves cut off near their base, and the bulbs laid
out in a dry, airy, shady place to ripen, after which they are cleaned
of loose earth and skin, ready for storing. It is the practice in
Holland, about a month after the bloom, or when the tips of the leaves
assume a withered appearance, to take up the bulbs, and to lay them
sideways on the ground, covering them with an inch or two of earth.
About three weeks later they are again taken up and cleaned. In the
store-room they should be kept dry, well-aired and apart from each
other.

Few plants are better adapted than the hyacinth for pot culture as
greenhouse decorative plants; and by the aid of forcing they may be
had in bloom as early as Christmas. They flower fairly well in 5-in.
pots, the stronger bulbs in 6-in. pots. To bloom at Christmas, they
should be potted early in September, in a compost resembling that
already recommended for the open-air beds; and, to keep up a
succession of bloom, others should be potted at intervals of a few
weeks till the middle or end of November. The tops of the bulbs should
be about level with the soil, and if a little sand is put immediately
around them so much the better. The pots should be set in an open
place on a dry hard bed of ashes, and be covered over to a depth of 6
or 8 in. with the same material or with fibre or soil; and when the
roots are well developed, which will take from six to eight weeks,
they may be removed to a frame, and gradually exposed to light, and
then placed in a forcing pit in a heat of from 60 to 70°. When the
flowers are fairly open, they may be removed to the greenhouse or
conservatory.

The hyacinth may be very successfully grown in glasses for ornament in
dwelling-houses. The glasses are filled to the neck with rain or even
tap water, a few lumps of charcoal being dropped into them. The bulbs
are placed in the hollow provided for them, so that their base just
touches the water. This may be done in September or October. They are
then set in a dark cupboard for a few weeks till roots are freely
produced, and then gradually exposed to light. The early-flowering
single white Roman hyacinth, a small-growing pure white variety,
remarkable for its fragrance, is well adapted for forcing, as it can
be had in bloom if required by November. For windows it grows well in
the small glasses commonly used for crocuses; and for decorative
purposes should be planted about five bulbs in a 5-in. pot, or in pans
holding a dozen each. If grown for cut flowers it can be planted
thickly in boxes of any convenient size. It is highly esteemed during
the winter months by florists.

The Spanish hyacinth (_H. amethystinus_) and _H. azureus_ are charming
little bulbs for growing in masses in the rock garden or front of the
flower border. The older botanists included in the genus _Hyacinthus_
species of _Muscari_, _Scilla_ and other genera of bulbous Liliaceae,
and the name of hyacinth is still popularly applied to several other
bulbous plants. Thus _Muscari botryoides_ is the grape hyacinth, 6
in., blue or white, the handsomest; _M. moschatum_, the musk hyacinth,
10 in., has peculiar livid greenish-yellow flowers and a strong musky
odour; _M. comosum_ var. _monstrosum_, the feather hyacinth, bears
sterile flowers broken up into a featherlike mass; _M. racemosum_, the
starch hyacinth, is a native with deep blue plum-scented flowers. The
Cape hyacinth is _Galtonia candicans_, a magnificent border plant, 3-4
ft. high, with large drooping white bell-shaped flowers; the star
hyacinth, _Scilla amoena_; the Peruvian hyacinth or Cuban lily, _S.
peruviana_, a native of the Mediterranean region, to which Linnaeus
gave the species name _peruviana_ on a mistaken assumption of its
origin; the wild hyacinth or blue-bell, known variously as _Endymion
nonscriptum_, _Hyacinthus nonscriptus_ or _Scilla nutans_; the wild
hyacinth of western North America, _Camassia esculenta_. They all
flourish in good garden soil of a gritty nature.

HYACINTH, or JACINTH, in mineralogy, a variety of zircon (q.v.) of yellowish red colour, used as a gem-stone. The _hyacinthus_ of ancient writers must have been our sapphire, or blue corundum, while the hyacinth of modern mineralogists may have been the stone known as _lyncurium_ ([Greek: lynkourion]). The Hebrew word _leshem_, translated ligure in the Authorized Version (Ex. xxviii. 19), from the [Greek: ligyrion] of the Septuagint, appears in the Revised Version as jacinth, but with a marginal alternative of amber. Both jacinth and amber may be reddish yellow, but their identification is doubtful. As our jacinth (zircon) is not known in ancient Egyptian work, Professor Flinders Petrie has suggested that the _leshem_ may have been a yellow quartz, or perhaps agate. Some old English writers describe the jacinth as yellow, whilst others refer to it as a blue stone, and the _hyacinthus_ of some authorities seems undoubtedly to have been our sapphire. In Rev. xx. 20 the Revised Version retains the word jacinth, but gives sapphire as an alternative.

Most of the gems known in trade as hyacinth are only garnets--generally the deep orange-brown hessonite or cinnamon-stone--and many of the antique engraved stones reputed to be hyacinth are probably garnets. The difference may be detected optically, since the garnet is singly and the hyacinth doubly refracting; moreover the specific gravity affords a simple means of diagnosis, that of garnet being only about 3.7, whilst hyacinth may have a density as high as 4.7. Again, it was shown many years ago by Sir A. H. Church that most hyacinths, when examined by the spectroscope, show a series of dark absorption bands, due perhaps to the presence of some rare element such as uranium or erbium.

Hyacinth is not a common mineral. It occurs, with other zircons, in the gem-gravels of Ceylon, and very fine stones have been found as pebbles at Mudgee in New South Wales. Crystals of zircon, with all the typical characters of hyacinth, occur at Expailly, Le Puy-en-Velay, in Central France, but they are not large enough for cutting. The stones which have been called Compostella hyacinths are simply ferruginous quartz from Santiago de Compostella in Spain. (F. W. R.*)

HYACINTHUS,[1] in Greek mythology, the youngest son of the Spartan king Amyclas, who reigned at Amyclae (so Pausanias iii. 1. 3, iii. 19. 5; and Apollodorus i. 3. 3, iii. 10. 3). Other stories make him son of Oebalus, of Eurotas, or of Pierus and the nymph Clio (see Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 271; Lucian, _De saltatione_, 45, and _Dial. deor._ 14). According to the general story, which is probably late and composite, his great beauty attracted the love of Apollo, who killed him accidentally when teaching him to throw the _discus_ (quoit); others say that Zephyrus (or Boreas) out of jealousy deflected the quoit so that it hit Hyacinthus on the head and killed him. According to the representation on the tomb at Amyclae (Pausanias, _loc. cit._) Hyacinthus was translated into heaven with his virgin sister Polyboea. Out of his blood there grew the flower known as the hyacinth, the petals of which were marked with the mournful exclamation AI, AI, "alas" (cf. "that sanguine flower inscribed with woe"). This Greek hyacinth cannot have been the flower which now bears the name: it has been identified with a species of iris and with the larkspur (_Delphinium Aiacis_), which appear to have the markings described. The Greek hyacinth was also said to have sprung from the blood of Ajax. Evidently the Greek authorities confused both the flowers and the traditions.

The death of Hyacinthus was celebrated at Amyclae by the second most important of Spartan festivals, the Hyacinthia, which took place in the Spartan month Hecatombeus. What month this was is not certain. Arguing from Xenophon (_Hell._ iv. 5) we get May; assuming that the Spartan Hecatombeus is the Attic Hecatombaion, we get July; or again it may be the Attic Scirophorion, June. At all events the Hyacinthia was an early summer festival. It lasted three days, and the rites gradually passed from mourning for Hyacinthus to rejoicings in the majesty of Apollo, the god of light and warmth, and giver of the ripe fruits of the earth (see a passage from Polycrates, _Laconica_, quoted by Athenaeus 139 d; criticized by L. R. Farnell, _Cults of the Greek States_, iv. 266 foll.). This festival is clearly connected with vegetation, and marks the passage from the youthful verdure of spring to the dry heat of summer and the ripening of the corn.

The precise relation which Apollo bears to Hyacinthus is obscure. The fact that at Tarentum a Hyacinthus tomb is ascribed by Polybius to Apollo Hyacinthus (not Hyacinthius) has led some to think that the personalities are one, and that the hero is merely an emanation from the god; confirmation is sought in the Apolline appellation [Greek: tetracheir], alleged by Hesychius to have been used in Laconia, and assumed to describe a composite figure of Apollo-Hyacinthus. Against this theory is the essential difference between the two figures. Hyacinthus is a chthonian vegetation god whose worshippers are afflicted and sorrowful; Apollo, though interested in vegetation, is never regarded as inhabiting the lower world, his death is not celebrated in any ritual, his worship is joyous and triumphant, and finally the Amyclean Apollo is specifically the god of war and song. Moreover, Pausanias describes the monument at Amyclae as consisting of a rude figure of Apollo standing on an altar-shaped base which formed the tomb of Hyacinthus. Into the latter offerings were put for the hero before gifts were made to the god.

On the whole it is probable that Hyacinthus belongs originally to the pre-Dorian period, and that his story was appropriated and woven into their own Apollo myth by the conquering Dorians. Possibly he may be the apotheosis of a pre-Dorian king of Amyclae. J. G. Frazer further suggests that he may have been regarded as spending the winter months in the underworld and returning to earth in the spring when the "hyacinth" blooms. In this case his festival represents perhaps both the Dorian conquest of Amyclae and the death of spring before the ardent heat of the summer sun, typified as usual by the _discus_ (quoit) with which Apollo is said to have slain him. With the growth of the hyacinth from his blood should be compared the oriental stories of violets springing from the blood of Attis, and roses and anemones from that of Adonis. As a youthful vegetation god, Hyacinthus may be compared with Linus and Scephrus, both of whom are connected with Apollo Agyieus.

See L. R. Farnell, _Cults of the Greek States_, vol. iv. (1907), pp.
125 foll., 264 foll.; J. G. Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_ (1906),
bk. ii. ch. 7; S. Wide, _Lakonische Kulte_, p. 290; E. Rhode,
_Psyche_, 3rd ed. i. 137 foll.; Roscher, _Lexikon d. griech. u. röm.
Myth._, s.v. "Hyakinthos" (Greve); L. Preller, _Griechische Mythol._
4th ed. i. 248 foll. (J. M. M.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The word is probably derived from an Indo-European root, meaning
"youthful," found in Latin, Greek, English and Sanskrit. Some have
suggested that the first two letters are from [Greek: uein], to rain,
(cf. Hyades).

HYADES ("the rainy ones"), in Greek mythology, the daughters of Atlas and Aethra; their number varies between two and seven. As a reward for having brought up Zeus at Dodona and taken care of the infant Dionysus Hyes, whom they conveyed to Ino (sister of his mother Semele) at Thebes when his life was threatened by Lycurgus, they were translated to heaven and placed among the stars (Hyginus, _Poët. astron._ ii. 21). Another form of the story combines them with the Pleiades. According to this they were twelve (or fifteen) sisters, whose brother Hyas was killed by a snake while hunting in Libya (Ovid, _Fasti_, v. 165; Hyginus, _Fab._ 192). They lamented him so bitterly that Zeus, out of compassion, changed them into stars--five into the Hyades, at the head of the constellation of the Bull, the remainder into the Pleiades. Their name is derived from the fact that the rainy season commenced when they rose at the same time as the sun (May 7-21); the original conception of them is that of the fertilizing principle of moisture. The Romans derived the name from [Greek: us] (pig), and translated it by _Suculae_ (Cicero, _De nat. deorum_, ii. 43).

HYATT, ALPHEUS (1838-1902), American naturalist, was born at Washington, D.C., on the 5th of April 1838. From 1858 to 1862 he studied at Harvard, where he had Louis Agassiz for his master, and in 1863 he served as a volunteer in the Civil War, attaining the rank of captain. In 1867 he was appointed curator of the Essex Institute at Salem, and in 1870 became professor of zoology and palaeontology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (resigned 1888), and custodian of the Boston Society of Natural History (curator in 1881). In 1886 he was appointed assistant for palaeontology in the Cambridge museum of comparative anatomy, and in 1889 was attached to the United States Geological Survey as palaeontologist for the Trias and Jura. He was the chief founder of the American Society of Naturalists, of which he acted as first president in 1883, and he also took a leading part in establishing the marine biological laboratories at Annisquam and Woods Hole, Mass. He died at Cambridge on the 15th of January 1902.

His works include _Observations on Fresh-water Polyzoa_ (1866);
_Fossil Cephalopods of the Museum of Comparative Zoology_ (1872);
_Revision of North American Porifera_ (1875-1877); _Genera of Fossil
Cephalopoda_ (1883); _Larval Theory of the Origin of Cellular Tissue_
(1884); _Genesis of the Arietidae_ (1889); and _Phylogeny of an
acquired characteristic_ (1894). He wrote the section on Cephalopoda
in Karl von Zittel's _Paläontologie_ (1900), and his well-known study
on the fossil pond snails of Steinheim ("The Genesis of the Tertiary
Species of Planorbis at Steinheim") appeared in the _Memoirs_ of the
Boston Natural History Society in 1880. He was one of the founders and
editors of the _American Naturalist_.

HYBLA, the name of several cities In Sicily. The best known historically, though its exact site is uncertain, is Hybla Major, near (or by some supposed to be identical with) Megara Hyblaea (q.v.): another Hybla, known as Hybla Minor or Galeatis, is represented by the modern Paternò; while the site of Hybla Heraea is to be sought near Ragusa.

HYBRIDISM. The Latin word _hybrida_, _hibrida_ or _ibrida_ has been assumed to be derived from the Greek [Greek: hybris], an insult or outrage, and a hybrid or mongrel has been supposed to be an outrage on nature, an unnatural product. As a general rule animals and plants belonging to distinct species do not produce offspring when crossed with each other, and the term hybrid has been employed for the result of a fertile cross between individuals of different species, the word mongrel for the more common result of the crossing of distinct varieties. A closer scrutiny of the facts, however, makes the term hybridism less isolated and more vague. The words species and genus, and still more subspecies and variety, do not correspond with clearly marked and sharply defined zoological categories, and no exact line can be drawn between the various kinds of crossings from those between individuals apparently identical to those belonging to genera universally recognized as distinct. Hybridism therefore grades into mongrelism, mongrelism into cross-breeding, and cross-breeding into normal pairing, and we can say little more than that the success of the union is the more unlikely or more unnatural the further apart the parents are in natural affinity.

The interest in hybridism was for a long time chiefly of a practical nature, and was due to the fact that hybrids are often found to present characters somewhat different from those of either parent. The leading facts have been known in the case of the horse and ass from time immemorial. The earliest recorded observation of a hybrid plant is by J. G. Gmelin towards the end of the 17th century; the next is that of Thomas Fairchild, who in the second decade of the 18th century, produced the cross which is still grown in gardens under the name of "Fairchild's Sweet William." Linnaeus made many experiments in the cross-fertilization of plants and produced several hybrids, but Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter (1733-1806) laid the first real foundation of our scientific knowledge of the subject. Later on Thomas Andrew Knight, a celebrated English horticulturist, devoted much successful labour to the improvement of fruit trees and vegetables by crossing. In the second quarter of the 19th century C. F. Gärtner made and published the results of a number of experiments that had not been equalled by any earlier worker. Next came Charles Darwin, who first in the _Origin of Species_, and later in _Cross and Self-Fertilization of Plants_, subjected the whole question to a critical examination, reviewed the known facts and added many to them.

Darwin's conclusions were summed up by G. J. Romanes in the 9th
edition of this _Encyclopaedia_ as follows:--

1. The laws governing the production of hybrids are identical, or
nearly identical, in the animal and vegetable kingdoms.

2. The sterility which so generally attends the crossing of two
specific forms is to be distinguished as of two kinds, which, although
often confounded by naturalists, are in reality quite distinct.
For the sterility may obtain between the two parent species when first
crossed, or it may first assert itself in their hybrid progeny. In the
latter case the hybrids, although possibly produced without any
appearance of infertility on the part of their parent species,
nevertheless prove more or less infertile among themselves, and also
with members of either parent species.

3. The degree of both kinds of infertility varies in the case of
different species, and in that of their hybrid progeny, from absolute
sterility up to complete fertility. Thus, to take the case of plants,
"when pollen from a plant of one family is placed on the stigma of a
plant of a distinct family, it exerts no more influence than so much
inorganic dust. From this absolute zero of fertility, the pollen of
different species, applied to the stigma of some one species of the
same genus, yields a perfect gradation in the number of seeds
produced, up to nearly complete, or even quite complete, fertility;
so, in hybrids themselves, there are some which never have produced,
and probably never would produce, even with the pollen of the pure
parents, a single fertile seed; but in some of these cases a first
trace of fertility may be detected, by the pollen of one of the pure
parent species causing the flower of the hybrid to wither earlier than
it otherwise would have done; and the early withering of the flower is
well known to be a sign of incipient fertilization. From this extreme
degree of sterility we have self-fertilized hybrids producing a
greater and greater number of seeds up to perfect fertility."

4. Although there is, as a rule, a certain parallelism, there is no
fixed relation between the degree of sterility manifested by the
parent species when crossed and that which is manifested by their
hybrid progeny. There are many cases in which two pure species can be
crossed with unusual facility, while the resulting hybrids are
remarkably sterile; and, contrariwise, there are species which can
only be crossed with extreme difficulty, though the hybrids, when
produced, are very fertile. Even within the limits of the same genus,
these two opposite cases may occur.

5. When two species are reciprocally crossed, i.e. male A with female
B, and male B with female A, the degree of sterility often differs
greatly in the two cases. The sterility of the resulting hybrids may
differ likewise.

6. The degree of sterility of first crosses and of hybrids runs, to a
certain extent, parallel with the systematic affinity of the forms
which are united. "For species belonging to distinct genera can
rarely, and those belonging to distinct families can never, be
crossed. The parallelism, however, is far from complete; for a
multitude of closely allied species will not unite, or unite with
extreme difficulty, whilst other species, widely different from each
other, can be crossed with perfect facility. Nor does the difficulty
depend on ordinary constitutional differences; for annual and
perennial plants, deciduous and evergreen trees, plants flowering at
different seasons, inhabiting different stations, and naturally living
under the most opposite climates, can often be crossed with ease. The
difficulty or facility apparently depends exclusively on the sexual
constitution of the species which are crossed, or on their sexual
elective affinity."

There are many new records as to the production of hybrids. Horticulturists have been extremely active and successful in their attempts to produce new flowers or new varieties of vegetables by seminal or graft-hybrids, and any florist's catalogue or the account of any special plant, such as is to be found in Foster-Melliar's _Book of the Rose_, is in great part a history of successful hybridization. Much special experimental work has been done by botanists, notably by de Vries, to the results of whose experiments we shall recur. Experiments show clearly that the obtaining of hybrids is in many cases merely a matter of taking sufficient trouble, and the successful crossing of genera is not infrequent.

Focke, for instance, cites cases where hybrids were obtained between
_Brassica_ and _Raphanus_, _Galium_ and _Asperula_, _Campanula_ and
_Phyteuma_, _Verbascum_ and _Celsia_. Among animals, new records and
new experiments are almost equally numerous. Boveri has crossed
_Echinus microtuberculatus_ with _Sphaerechinus granularis_. Thomas
Hunt Morgan even obtained hybrids between Asterias, a starfish, and
_Arbacia_, a sea-urchin, a cross as remote as would be that between a
fish and a mammal. Vernon got many hybrids by fertilizing the eggs of
_Strongylocentrotus lividus_ with the sperm of _Sphaerechinus
granularis_. Standfuss has carried on an enormous series of
experiments with Lepidopterous insects, and has obtained a very large
series of hybrids, of which he has kept careful record. Lepidopterists
generally begin to suspect that many curious forms offered by dealers
as new species are products got by crossing known species. Apellö has
succeeded with Teleostean fish; Gebhardt and others with Amphibia.
Elliot and Suchetet have studied carefully the question of
hybridization occurring normally among birds, and have got together a
very large body of evidence. Among the cases cited by Elliot the most
striking are that of the hybrid between _Colaptes cafer_ and _C.
auratus_, which occurs over a very wide area of North America and is
known as _C. hybridus_, and the hybrid between _Euplocamus lineatus_
and _E. horsfieldi_, which appears to be common in Assam. St M.
Podmore has produced successful crosses between the wood-pigeon
(_Columba palumbus_) and a domesticated variety of the rock pigeon
(_C. livia_). Among mammals noteworthy results have been obtained by
Professor Cossar Ewart, who has bred nine zebra hybrids by crossing
mares of various sizes with a zebra stallion, and who has studied in
addition three hybrids out of zebra mares, one sired by a donkey, the
others by ponies. Crosses have been made between the common rabbit
(_Lepus cuniculus_) and the guinea-pig (_Cavia cobaya_), and examples
of the results have been exhibited in the Zoological Gardens of
Sydney, New South Wales. The Carnivora generally are very easy to
hybridize, and many successful experiments have been made with animals
in captivity. Karl Hagenbeck of Hamburg has produced crosses between
the lion (_Felis leo_) and the tiger (_F. tigris_). What was probably
a "tri-hybrid" in which lion, leopard and jaguar were mingled was
exhibited by a London showman in 1908. Crosses between various species
of the smaller cats have been fertile on many occasions. The black
bear (_Ursus americanus_) and the European brown bear (_U. arctos_)
bred in the London Zoological Gardens in 1859, but the three cubs did
not reach maturity. Hybrids between the brown bear and the
grizzly-bear (_U. horribilis_) have been produced in Cologne, whilst
at Halle since 1874 a series of successful matings of polar (_U.
maritimus_) and brown bears have been made. Examples of these hybrid
bears have been exhibited by the London Zoological Society. The London
Zoological Society has also successfully mated several species of
antelopes, for instance, the water-bucks _Kobus ellipsiprymnus_ and
_K. unctuosus_, and Selous's antelope _Limnotragus selousi_ with _L.
gratus_.

The causes militating against the production of hybrids have also received considerable attention. Delage, discussing the question, states that there is a general proportion between sexual attraction and zoological affinity, and in many cases hybrids are not naturally produced simply from absence of the stimulus to sexual mating, or because of preferential mating within the species or variety. In addition to differences of habit, temperament, time of maturity, and so forth, gross structural differences may make mating impossible. Thus Escherick contends that among insects the peculiar structure of the genital appendages makes cross-impregnation impossible, and there is reason to believe that the specific peculiarities of the modified sexual palps in male spiders have a similar result.

The difficulties, however, may not exist, or may be overcome by
experiment, and frequently it is only careful management that is
required to produce crossing. Thus it has been found that when the
pollen of one species does not succeed in fertilizing the ovules of
another species, yet the reciprocal cross may be successful; that is
to say, the pollen of the second species may fertilize the ovules of
the first. H. M. Vernon, working with sea-urchins, found that the
obtaining of hybrids depended on the relative maturity of the sexual
products. The difficulties in crossing apparently may extend to the
chemiotaxic processes of the actual sexual cells. Thus when the
spermatozoa of an urchin were placed in a drop of seawater containing
ripe eggs of an urchin and of a starfish, the former eggs became
surrounded by clusters of the male cells, while the latter appeared to
exert little attraction for the alien germ-cells. Finally, when the
actual impregnation of the egg is possible naturally, or has been
secured by artificial means, the development of the hybrid may stop at
an early stage. Thus hybrids between the urchin and the starfish,
animals belonging to different classes, reached only the stage of the
pluteus larva. A. D. Apellö, experimenting with Teleostean fish, found
that very often impregnation and segmentation occurred, but that the
development broke down immediately afterwards. W. Gebhardt, crossing
_Rana esculenta_ with _R. arvalis_, found that the cleavage of the
ovum was normal, but that abnormality began with the gastrula, and
that development soon stopped. In a very general fashion there appears
to be a parallel between the zoological affinity and the extent to
which the incomplete development of the hybrid proceeds.

As to the sterility of hybrids _inter se_, or with either of the parent forms, information is still wanted. Delage, summing up the evidence in a general way, states that mongrels are more fertile and stronger than their parents, while hybrids are at least equally hardy but less fertile. While many of the hybrid products of horticulturists are certainly infertile, others appear to be indefinitely fertile.

Focke, it is true, states that the hybrids between _Primula auricula_
and _P. hirsuta_ are fertile for many generations, but not
indefinitely so; but, while this may be true for the particular case,
there seems no reason to doubt that many plant hybrids are quite
fertile. In the case of animals the evidence is rather against
fertility. Standfuss, who has made experiments lasting over many
years, and who has dealt with many genera of Lepidoptera, obtained no
fertile hybrid females, although he found that hybrid males paired
readily and successfully with pure-bred females of the parent races.
Elliot, dealing with birds, concluded that no hybrids were
fertile with one another beyond the second generation, but thought
that they were fertile with members of the parent races. Wallace, on
the other hand, cites from Quatrefages the case of hybrids between the
moths _Bombyx cynthia_ and _B. arrindia_, which were stated to be
fertile _inter se_ for eight generations. He also states that hybrids
between the sheep and goat have a limited fertility _inter se_.
Charles Darwin, however, had evidence that some hybrid pheasants were
completely fertile, and he himself interbred the progeny of crosses
between the common and Chinese geese, whilst there appears to be no
doubt as to the complete fertility of the crosses between many species
of ducks, J. L. Bonhote having interbred in various crosses for
several generations the mallard (_Anas boschas_), the Indian spot-bill
duck (_A. poecilorhyncha_), the New Zealand grey duck (_A.
superciliosa_) and the pin-tail (_Dafila acuta_). Podmore's pigeon
hybrids were fertile _inter se_, a specimen having been exhibited at
the London Zoological Gardens. The hybrids between the brown and polar
bears bred at Halle proved to be fertile, both with one of the parent
species and with one another.

Cornevin and Lesbre state that in 1873 an Arab mule was fertilized in
Africa by a stallion, and gave birth to female offspring which she
suckled. All three were brought to the Jardin d'Acclimatation in
Paris, and there the mule had a second female colt to the same father,
and subsequently two male colts in succession to an ass and to a
stallion. The female progeny were fertilized, but their offspring were
feeble and died at birth. Cossar Ewart gives an account of a recent
Indian case in which a female mule gave birth to a male colt. He
points out, however, that many mistakes have been made about the
breeding of hybrids, and is not altogether inclined to accept this
supposed case. Very little has been published with regard to the most
important question, as to the actual condition of the sexual organs
and cells in hybrids. There does not appear to be gross anatomical
defect to account for the infertility of hybrids, but microscopical
examination in a large number of cases is wanted. Cossar Ewart, to
whom indeed much of the most interesting recent work on hybrids is
due, states that in male zebra-hybrids the sexual cells were immature,
the tails of the spermatozoa being much shorter than those of the
similar cells in stallions and zebras. He adds, however, that the male
hybrids he examined were young, and might not have been sexually
mature. He examined microscopically the ovary of a female zebra-hybrid
and found one large and several small Graafian follicles, in all
respects similar to those in a normal mare or female zebra. A careful
study of the sexual organs in animal and plant hybrids is very much to
be desired, but it may be said that so far as our present knowledge
goes there is not to be expected any obvious microscopical cause of
the relative infertility of hybrids.