THE LIFE-HISTORY OF A CROCUS. 89 



a half high at the flowering time, rapidly increasing in length at 

 the maturity of the capsule, hringing it to or above the surface. 

 The author stated that in those species with a short scape or 

 nearly sessile ovary at the time of flowering, the scape was pro- 

 duced to a greater length at maturity than in the species having a 

 long scape at the flowering time. 



Of the foliaceous organs pertaining to the ascending axis there 

 are two distinct series, w^hich the author, following Baker, terms 

 spathes, viz., a membranous sheath or basal spathe springing from 

 the base of the scape, and one or two similar sheaths springing 

 from the base of the ovary, termed by Baker the proper spathes. 

 The basal spathe is not always present, and its presence or 

 absence suggested to Herbert the classification of the genus into 

 two main groups, Involucrati and Nudiflori. The basal spathe 

 sometimes encloses more than one scape, and in other cases there 

 is a separate basal spathe to each of several scapes arising within 

 the same whorl of leaves. 



The proper spathe is either monophyllous or diphyllous, a 

 character sufficiently constant for use in specific determination. 

 In the perianth the throat is of special interest in relation to 

 specific character, as the presence or absence of the beard, a bunch 

 of hairs at the base of each filament, is not only sufficiently con- 

 stant for specific diagnosis, but was employed by Howarth for the 

 main grouping of the genus into two sections he termed Piligeri 

 and Depilati. The throat internally is almost always more or less 

 orange, and this is so constant that, whilst the general colour of 

 the perianth is very variable, the orange of the throat, even in 

 albinos, is constant. 



The perianth segments vary from half an inch to two and a half 

 inches in length ; those of the inner whorl are a little shorter than 

 the outer. In C. iridiflorus the difference is so much more striking 

 than in any other species, that it suggested to Schur its generic 

 separation as Crociris. There appear to be two distinct sets of 

 colour-cells in the perianth, the markings on the inner surface 

 never exactly corresponding with the outer. The feathered 

 markings are generally external, and for the most part confined to 

 the outer surface of the three outer segments, but in a few species, 

 as C. zonatus, C. pidchellus, and C. vallicola, the more prominent 

 markings are ranged on the inner surface of the segments. 

 The presence or absence of markings, and even the general flower 

 colouring, is little to be relied on for specific distinction, as the 

 majority of species vary with striped and self-coloured flowers, 

 nearly all the cyanic species vary in every shade to white, and 

 the xanthic species occasionally vary to white and even blue ; but 

 there is no case in which a cyanic species varies to orange. 



In colour variation there are several interesting features ; 

 a few species, e.g., C. vermis, C. versicolor, C. asturicus, and C. 

 a'erins, are essentially various in their colouring, and it is difficult 

 to find two flowers precisely similar in the same habitat. There 

 are other species that are perfectly constant, and, again, those that 

 do not vary in the same habitat vary geographically, e.g., ('. 



