CLASS III. ORDER I,] CROCUS. 41 



Habitat. — In the meadows between Nottingham Castle and the rivev 

 Trent. Plentiful, though not in so great profusion as C. vernus. 



Perennial ; flowering in October. 



It is remarkable that the same fertile meadows should in early spring- 

 be adorned with the rich flowers of C. vernus, and in the decline of 

 autumn with the not less beautiful C. nudi/lorus. 



6. C. specio'sus, (Fig. .59.) showy autumnal Crocus. Stigma erect 

 within the flower, in three laciniated tufted lobes, longer than the 

 stamens. The flowers appear without leaves. 



English Botany, Supplement, t. 2752. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. 

 i. p. 25. 



Similar to the last species, except in the somewhat longer and less 

 distinctly three-lobed stigma. Characters scarcely sufficiently perma- 

 nent to constitute a specific diff'erence. 



Habitat. — In meadows about Warrington and Halifax, probably 

 naturalised. 



Perennial ; flowering in October. 



The humble, grass-like foliage — the white, gold, or purple-coloured 

 flowers — together with the extreme hardiness of the bulbs, has rendered 

 the Crocus an object of peculiar interest to lovers of flowers, since, and 

 probably long before, the time of Edward the Third. This beautiful 

 flower would appear to have attracted especial notice when Floriculture 

 was yet in its infancy; and more than two hundred years ago, Parkinson 

 enumerated no less than thirty-one kinds as having " been carefully 

 sought out and preserved by divers to furnish a garden of denty curio- 

 sity.' The fact that so great a number of kinds were cultivated at so 

 remote a period, greatly strengthens the probability that the Crocus Is 

 not an aboriginal native of Great Britain ; and the same author re- 

 marks, — " The several places of these saff'ron flowers have been found 

 out, some in one country and some in another, as the small purple and 

 white and striped white in Spain, — the yellow in Mesia, about Bel- 

 grade, — the great purple in Italy ; and now by such friends' helps as 

 have sent them, they prosper as well in our gardens as in their natural 

 places : yet I must give you this to understand, that some of these for- 

 merly expressed have been raised up unto us by the sowing of their 

 seed : " — from which it would appear, that by seminal ofl"spring varie- 

 ties were then raised, and by this means the roots might be increased 

 to a very great extent ; considered with this, the almost indestructibi- 

 lity and tenacity of life evinced by the Crocus, even under the most 

 unfavourable circumstances, — the facility with which birds might carry 

 either seeds or bulbs to a distance, — and whatever satisfaction it would 

 aff'ord in being able to prove that these beautiful flowers are really 

 " anchent Britains," it is far more likely they are but naturalised na- 

 tives. 



As a garden flower, the Crocus is still somewhat in repute ; but that 



VOL. I. G 



