Griesbach, who enumerates it amongst the “Croci inqui- 
rendi” in his “Spicilegium Flore Rumelice et Bithynice.” 
Crocus byzantinus has long been in cultivation at Kew 
and elsewhere, and the drawing was made partly from 
specimens communicated by Major Trevor Clarke, and partly 
from others that flowered in Kew in November last. 
Descr. Corm three quarters to one anda quarter inches in 
diameter, depressed-globose, clothed with a light brown net- 
work of longitudinally interlaced fibres, that extends in a 
sheath for a short way round the base of the leaves, and some- 
times also up the flowering-scape. Leaves three to four, pro- 
duced in spring, dark green, one-third of an inch in diameter, 
with a central yellow rib towards the base only. Sheaths 
on the scape closed, white, reaching to about halfway 
between the flower and corm. Perianth-tube slender, white ; 
limb three to three and a half inches in diameter, lilac- 
purple; segments elliptic-ovate, acuminate, very concave, 
the inner not half as large as the outer, sometimes white. - 
Stamens included ; anthers yellow, longer than the filaments. 
Stigmas purple, split at the top into from seven to ten 
slender segments.—/. D. H. 
Fig. 1, Portion of sheath of corm; 2, stigmas :—both magnified, 
