1879.] CHOICE HARDY SPRING FLOWERS. 305 



up its flowers in advance of its leaves. The flowers are rosy-purple, 

 and appear in February and March. 



Convallaria majalis (Lily of the Valley). — Although rather late to 

 appear in flower, no list of spring flowers would be complete without 

 this elegant and sweet universal favourite. It is one of the very few 

 cultivated plants which have held an unassailable position in the esti- 

 mation of the public, notwithstanding the changes of fashion. 



Erythronium dens-canis (the Dog's-tooth Violet). — A very beau- 

 tiful and free-flowering plant, pretty generally cultivated, and well 

 worthy of being so. The foliage alone is most attractive, with its 

 brown and glaucous-green blotches ; but the flowers, which are pro- 

 duced in great profusion in March and April, are no less attractive. 

 There are two or three varieties — a deep rosy-purple one, and one 

 with paler purple flowers, and a white-flowered one which is very 

 pretty as a variety and contrast with the others. E. americanum is 

 not so often to be met with in gardens as the preceding, but it is no 

 less worthy of general cultivation. The leaves are more lanceolate in 

 form, but are similarly marked with brown spots ; the flowers are fully 

 larger in size, and are yellow in colour. It flowers later than E. clens- 

 canis, generally about the middle of April. 



Fritillaria. — Of this genus there are several forms which are 

 worthy of being included among spring flowers when the collection, 

 is to be composed of all that combine early-flowering qualities with 

 some beauty or elegance in form or colour. But the Fritillarias can- 

 not be regarded as decorative plants ; they are more curious and 

 elegant than showy and striking in colour. F. Mcleagris is the best 

 known, excepting perhaps the Crown Imperial (F. imperial is), w T hich 

 flowers too late to be fit to include in a list of spring flowers, and also 

 the handsomest both in colour and form. There are several varieties, 

 the best being that usually regarded as the normal form, with purple- 

 brown spotted flowers, and the white-flowered one. F. nigra has 

 very deep, dark, reddish-brown flowers, and F. obliqua purple-brown 

 flowers. 



Hyacinthus. — It is unnecessary to mention the varieties of H. 

 orientalis, which are so universally grown in pots and bedded out in 

 the flower-garden ; but this paper would be incomplete without a 

 notice of H. amethystinus, which is a totally different type of Hya- 

 cinth to the beautiful forms alluded to. As the name denotes, the 

 flowers are amethyst blue, in loose open spikes, more like some of 

 the varieties of Scilla nutans, the Wood Hyacinth, than the more 

 erect close-spiked H. orientalis. It flowers towards the middle or 

 end of April. 



Muscari (Grape Hyacinth). — These are lovely and very popular 



