31 
39. CROCUS vallecola. 
Herbert. 
C. vallecola ; “ scapo involucrato, antheris albis, cormo e minimis, tunicà 
. ^ . . “ A LJ . . 
preecipuá tenuissimè membranaceá fibris parallelis superne confluentibus, 
interiore in vertice sita tenui membranaceä.”’—W. H. 
* Some circumstances have occurred which throw light 
on the cultivated Crocuses. The native places of C. biflorus 
commonly called Scotch crocus, of luteus the common yellow, 
of sulphureus concolor, pallidus, and striatus, of stellaris, 
and of lacteus penicillatus and concolor are unknown, unless 
the first should be found, as Bory de St. Vincent states, round 
the gulph of Ægina. Some seedlings raised from C. lagenæ- 
florus v. lacteus lutescens, a plant of which a few were found in 
Barton park, Suffolk, at the distance of about 70 yards from the 
place where C. lagenzeflorus aureus is naturalized under the oak 
trees, have begun to flower at Spofforth. The result is, that 
three have come like the parent; seven have reverted to 
lagenzflorus v. aureus, from which they appear to have ori- 
ginated; three are precisely Sabine's lacteus penicillatus, 
white with blue lines ; and one is Sabine's lacteus concolor. 
It is proved, therefore, that I was right in uniting those plants 
under lagenæflorus as varieties thereof. It seems that some 
difference in the soil or subsoil, or the thickness of the sod, 
and the exposure, caused that change in the race which gave 
us lacteus lutescens ; and that form appears to have been a 
step to the wider departure into white. About five or six 
years ago I received from my lamented friend, the Rev. Th. 
Butt, a bulb of Sabine's C. lagenzeflorus pallidus, a plant of 
which the anthers are sterile, and almost obsolete, and the 
corolla a little curled. It has now grown into a tuft of bulbs. 
Last year I observed two or three seedlings close to the tuft, 
and at this moment there stands one bulb on the edge of the 
tuft, striped outside like sulphureus striatus, but much paler. 
Sulphureus concolor, and striatus, and stellaris are all sterile, 
and none of them stand in the same border with pallidus ; 
but close behind it is a patch of C. reticulatus, the cloth of 
gold of crocus, by which I conceive that pallidus must have 
been fertilized. and have thus given birth to this striped 
May.— E. F 
