198 THE CROCUS AND SNOW-DROP. 



tube is hairy at the mouth. It flowers about February or March, 

 and is, therefore, the cheerful indicator of departing winter, and the 

 welcome harbinger of spring. 



I have said that the crocus is of the natural order Irideee, it will 

 not, therefore, be out of place briefly to mention the distinctive 

 characters of this order. The calyx and corolla are confounded, 

 that is, it is diflScult to distinguish the one from the other ; they are 

 sometimes irregular. The stamens are three in number, and arise 

 from the base of the sepals or calyx leaves, and not the petals or 

 flower leaves ; and their anthers or pollen bearers, burst externally. 

 The ovarium, or ovula deposit, is inferior to the calyx and flower, 

 and the style is single, the stigmas are three in number, and often 

 expanded, or what is called petaloid. They are all herbaceous plants 

 or undershrubs, the roots are tuberous or fibrous, the leaves are 

 e qui tan t, or liding. 



The crocus vernus. however, presents us with one or two devia- 

 tions from the above general rule. 



The stigmas do not expand, but are rolled up ; still they are very 

 large, and in the saflfron crocus hang down on the outside of the 

 flower, like an orange coloured tassel. The leaves in the crocus are 

 not equitant, that is, riding the one over the other, as in the iris, 

 so that there is, in this respect, an assimilation to the amaryllis 

 tribe. 



Besides the above named species of crocus, the following are 

 cultivated in our gardens, crocus versicolor, or party-coloured crocus, 

 a kind which requires light loam, while most of the others grow best 

 in sand ; crocue biflorus, or yellow bottomed ; crocus masiacus, or 

 great yellow ; crocus susianus, or cloth gold ; crocus sulphureus, or 

 sulphur coloured ; and crocus serotinus, or late flowered, blossoming 

 in autumn, the leaves appearing at the same time with the flower. 



The Snow-drop, galanthus nivalis, will next occupy our attention, 

 as being a plant very generally cultivated, and often lound spiinging 

 up in groups in our meadows and pastures, at this season of the 

 year. It is now admitted into the catalogue of English plants, 

 though it was not so by Ray, who was of opinion that it was imported 

 into England about the reign of Edward III. It is a flower, uni- 

 versally admired, piercing through the unmelted snow, which it rivals 



