30 THE GENUS CROCUS. 



but both the vernal and autumnal species respectively range themselves into compact 

 groups. In Italy and the Italian Islands, and the Alps, district B, the endemic vernal 

 species also form a natural group; but they are associated with C. bijlouts and C. 

 renins of wider range. Beyond these two cases, I know of no instance in which 

 the majority of the vernal, and the majority of the autumnal species within the same 

 district predominate as natural groups; and as a rule the several types are intermixed. 

 There are however, many striking cases of the geographical isolation of individual 

 species : the Islands of the Mediterranean affording the most conspicuous examples. 

 The remarkable C. Cambessedesii is limited to the Balearic Islands; Corsica and 

 Sardinia and the neighbouring islets have two species, C. corsicus and C. minimus, 

 which do not occur elsewhere; C. Crewei with its singular black anthers, occurs in 

 the island of Syra; C. cyprius, the only species with a scarlet filament, is confined 

 to Cyprus; and C. veneris to Cyprus and Crete. 



Of insular varieties of species found on the mainland there are several striking 



examples. 



C. hadiiaticus, which in Albania is either pure white, or white with a purple 

 throat, appears in the neighbouring island of Santa Maura with a golden yellow 

 throat; C. vermis is represented in the Sicilian mountains by the diminutive C. 

 sicidus; and C. Sieberi, which is self-coloured lilac on the mountains of Greece, appears 

 in Crete, Andros, and some other neighbouring islands with variegated purple and 

 white, or white flowers. 



Of the passage in colour from white to blue in one or two species, in their 

 ranging from west to east, I have already referred to ; and there are other somewhat 

 similar cases of colour variation running as it were parallel through several species 

 within the same district. 



In Dalmatia there is a general absence of the striping and feathering of species, 

 which occur elsewhere with feathered flowers. There are even more marked cases 

 than this of mimetic colouring, and of different species associated in the same 

 habitat putting on some identical special form of colouring. Especially remarkable 

 is the exact identity in colour and markings of the Santa Maura varieties of C. 

 cancellous and C. hadmaticus, species which are not nearly allied and the type- 

 colourings of which differ from those of the Santa Maura forms. Another remarkable 

 case is that of the form of C. cancellous found on the Bithynian Olympus in 

 association with C. acnus, putting on the exact colouring of its companion; more- 

 over, there is a large series of variations in the markings of C. cancellous which 

 are exactly mimetic of the variations in the markings of C. aerius, with which it is 



associated. 



I do not think that these are the result of hybridization, for as far as my 

 observations go I have been unable to detect a wild hybrid crocus; nor do I know 



