Mantissas of tlie same work various synonyms are added 

 from Bieberstein and others, from which it is to be inferred 

 that it is a Caucasian plant ; but it is probable that all 

 those synonyms are spurious, and consequently they throw 

 no light upon its origin. 



By degrees, however, a suspicion arose that Croats pu- 

 sillus, a plant originally described by Tenore in his Flora 

 Napolitana, but witii incorrect synonyms, might be the same 

 as C. biflorus, and Reichenbach even refers the new species 

 of Tenore to the latter. Specimens, for which I am indebted 

 to the Hon. W. F. Strangwa3^s, to a great extent confirm the 

 correctness of the modern opinion, and render it extremely 

 probable that our garden Scotch Crocus is a native of the 

 southern parts of Italy ; and owes its peculiar appearance to 

 long years of domestication. 



It is this very pretty wild plant that the accompanying 

 plate is intended to illustrate. The colours are more strongly 

 marked here than in the Scotch Crocus, and the peculiar 

 striation of the sepals of that plant is hardly traceable ; all 

 the parts moreover are smaller, and the anthers are shorter 

 than the stigmas, instead of equalling them in length. But 

 the peculiar dull, dirty yellow of the sepals, the texture of 

 the tunics of the cormi, and especially the form and undi- 

 vided structure of the stigmas, on which I am disposed to 

 put much reliance, are all characters of correspondence 

 between these two, and, I think, afford reasonable evidence 

 of their identity. Nevertheless, I have not absolutely com- 

 bined them, but figure this plant as I find it, leaving it to 

 those who agree with me in opinion, to add the synonyms of 

 C. biflorus should they think proper. 



According to Tenore, C. pusillus inhabits sterile sub- 

 mountainous pastures of the valleys of S. Rocco and of Orso- 

 lone near Naples, about Montescaglioso, Potenza and elsewhere 

 in Lucania. Gussone finds it near Caronia, Mistretta, S. 

 Fratello, Montalbano and Floresta in Sicily ; and Reichen- 

 bach says that it occurs on sterile hills near Parma, and in 

 the Roman states. 



Fig. 1. is an expanded flower; 2. shews the stamens 

 and stigmas. 



