COLCHICUM. 
autumn, but of the spring-beauty, and justly named, C. bulboco- 
dioeides. This, by whatever name called—and C. montanum has the 
weight of custom—sends up some three very broad, glossy, pointed 
little leaves in early spring, each leaf inclining to twist and curl to one 
side. From each cluster of these emerges a long lilac-mauve blossom, 
after the fashion of a glorified Bulbocodium. After a while the 
foliage curves inwards and tends to become concave. Alps of South 
Europe and the Levant—like a refined C. autumnale, but blooming 
by the snows with Crocus albiflorus and Soldanella. 
C. Parkinsonii is often advertised, but the true plant hardly ever 
seen. It may, however, easily be recognised, for when, in spring, its 
leaves appear, they are but few in number, long and notably narrow, 
and they lie quite flat on the ground, undulating and wavy at the edge. 
Then, from the bare fields of Delos, Chios, and Naxos, there spring the 
flowers in early autumn, beautiful wide cups of deep lilac-rose vividly 
chess-boarded with squares of white. It may possibly only be a 
variety of C. variegatum; and in cultivation is nice, asking 
especially for hot soil in a warm and _ perfectly-drained exposure. 
There is now talk of a yellow Colchicum from Syria, which is attributed 
by some as a variety to C. Parkinsonii. 
C. Parlatoris, from Taygetos, has leaves of excessive narrowness, 
and one or two little puny flowers in autumn. 
C. parnassicum is an Autumnale with broader blunter foliage, 
and shorter segments to the cup, which is smooth inside instead of 
being velvety. 
C. pusillum=C. Bertolonit. 
C. Sibthorbir—C. latifolium. 
C. speciosum, in which every autumn garden rejoices (if only the 
rain and the slugs will allow their full beauty to those stalwart vast 
upstanding goblets of claret-rose), has a range extending from Lazic 
Pontus into Persia. From which it may well be understood that one of 
the most beautiful and noble plants in the world, with its pure snow- 
white form, has sometimes been known to suffer damage in spring 
or winter by the nipping of its corm or foliage. None the less the 
white form is quite as safe and hardy as the type, planted deep in 
good soil, and left alone. But it must not be associated with smaller 
treasures, for, of all Colchicums, C. speciosum has perhaps the most 
tropically luxuriant foliage of all in sprmg and summer—huge high 
tufts and boskets of waving glossy splendour. 
C. Stevenii, from the shores of Syria, is quite close to C. Bertolonii, 
but with more leaves, and the anthers yellow, not purple. 
C. Szovitzii has not any special claims; it is allied to the equally 
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