CROCUS. 
in a shady place, with water laid on underground. It is the earliest 
of all the autumn Crocus, or the latest of the spring ones; for its 
flowers, of the most brilliant gold, appear in August. It is always 
rare and expensive. 
C. zonatus, on the contrary, is perfectly common and perfectly 
beautiful. It has a flattened, irregular corm, from which in September 
and October rise the buds, and open widely out into cups of a most 
diaphanous soft lavender. The anthers are white, and this delicate 
sweet beauty expands to her fullest happiness in a sunny exposure. 
SPRING-BLOOMING SPECIES OF THE SAME GROUP 
C. Imperati is indeed the éapos ayyeros (uepopwvos anowy, the 
sweet-voiced nightingale of the spring, peering up into the sere dank 
world when all the ground is rotten with death, and January, 
like sad Barsanti, weeps across the scene. It is one of the very 
loveliest, emitting, first, its prostrate dark leaves, and then, wrapped in 
twin spathes, a chalice of blossom, opaque creamy buff outside, and 
feathered richly with lines of dark purple; then, when the rare sun calls, 
the goblet becomes a wide star of pure soft lavender-purple. Quickly 
it grows and quickly increases, but because of its loveliness and pre- 
cocity, it should have a neat carpet to come through, and to keep the 
tears of winter from splashing its happy morning face. There is a 
white variety, too, and many others ; especially a second type, in which 
the leaves are erect instead of lying down, and the spathe is single. 
All these prizes are gathered in the neighbourhood of Naples. 
C. Malyi from Dalmatia, blooms from February to March, and 
has white flowers with a golden throat both inside and out. 
C. minimus is a wee jewel from Corsica, a cupling of purple in 
March and April, with broad and rounded segments. Here the bud- 
sheath sends up two spathes. Fora very fine place and through a very 
fine carpet. 
C’. versicolor, a most variable beauty with the three inner segments 
feathered inside as well as out. A hundred forms may be found in 
the scrub and in the rough places down among the rocks by the sea, 
along the French Riviera, and up into the hills. (February.) 
SECTION II.—WITH THE CORM IN NETTED TUNIC 
SPRING FLOWERING 
C. banaticus has lilac flowers, and a white hairless throat, with 
purple markings at the tip of the segments. (Hungary.) 
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