A seed list that identifies Dolichos bicontorta as the plant calls it Ram's Horns. This book is from 1778, Beauties of Flora, by Swindon. I can't find it online so far :-(
See review of Beauties of Flora just below this quoting of Swindon's book by Loudon in his 1824 An encyclopedia of gardening: comprising the theory and practice of horticulture, floriculture, arboriculture, and landscape-gardening, including all the latest improvements. a general history of gardening in all countries, and a statistical view of its present state, with suggestions for its future progress in the British Isles.
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I see another weird one to look up.
Sowing hardy Annual Flowers
Any time this month (March) , that the ground is in good condition, you may sow in the borders and other flower compartments, a variety of hardy annuals, such as large and dwarf annual sunflowers, sweet pea of every kind, larkspur, flos-adonis, persicaria, Tangier peas, Nigilla, Venus's looking-glass, Venus's navelwort, double dwarf poppy, Label's catchfly, dwarf-lychnis, snails, horns, hedgehogs, caterpillars, mignonette, china-aster, horse-shoes, belvidere, candytuft, honey-wort, convolvulus-minor, cyanus, china-hollyhock, lavatera, curled mallow, winged pea, china pink, ten weeks stock, and many other sorts, (see list of annuals) which will flower better if sown early, than if delayed to a late period; though every of the above will succeed very well if sown in the beginning of next month. From The American Gardener's Calendar, 1806, By Bernard M'Mahon
Another of my favorite, more normal, Dolichos is the Dolichis lablab. I first saw it growing all over a picket fence on Statin Island. It was lovely and lush. Then I found out it could survive and thrive in a school...which isn't easy. The flowers are nice and the purple pods are colorful and cheery. It is sort of poisonous, so an elementary school maybe isn't quite the place to grow it, BUT it isn't that poisonous. It would be nice in an office!
An encyclopedia of gardening: comprising the theory and practice of horticulture, floriculture, arboriculture, and landscape-gardening, including all the latest improvements. a general history of gardening in all countries, and a statistical view of its present state, with suggestions for its future progress in the British Isles - John Claudius Loudon, 1824
Dolichos bicontorta http://www.botanicus.org/page/1436892 Ram's Horn plate
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