4* 



THE GENUS CROCUS. 



C. etruscus, of which he was the discoverer. 



i860.— Paul de Tchihatcheff, in his great work Asia Mineur, Part III, 

 Botany, Vol. II, p. 520-525, described thirty-one Eastern species; but both the 

 synonymy and the descriptions are unreliable. 



1865-6. Dr. J. W. Klatt, in his Rcvisio Iridearum, published in Vol. XXXIV 



of The Linncea, enumerates only twenty- eight species, that is to say less than two 

 thirds of those well known at the time. His descriptions are strangely inaccurate, 

 and full of errors, both as to the synonymy of the species, and their geographical 



distribution. 



!866.— F. J. Ruprecht described Crocus Scharojani in Regel's Gartenflora, Vol. 



XVII, p.p. 134-5, Tab. 578. 



! 868.— Professor K. Koch read at the meeting of the British Association 

 at Norwich, a paper on the Classification of the Species of Croats. (Report p. 102, 

 and published in extenso at p. 966 of the Gardeners Chronicle, September 12th., 1868). 

 K. Koch also described C. chrysanthus, of Herbert, under the name of C. croceus, 

 in the XlXth. Volume of The Linncca; and C. cancellatus, of Herbert, as C. dianthus, 

 in the XXIst. Volume of The Linncea. 



1869.— Regel and Semenow described C. alatavicus, the first species found east 

 of the Caspian, in Regel's Plant. Semenoviana, IV, No. 1036. 



Herbert's History of the Species of Crocus, published in 1847, must, as a mono- 

 graph dealing with the entire genus, be looked upon as unsuperseded up to 

 1873, the date of the publication of Mr. Baker's Review of the Species of Crocus, 

 which appeared in Nos. 4, 6, 9, 13, 16, 18, 20, 43, 44, 46, and 49 of the Gardener's 

 Chronicle of 1873. The information brought together in Baker's valuable Synopsis, 

 has largely lightened the labour of preparing this work. I am also personally 

 indebted to Mr. Baker for much valuable help and advice in deciding many 

 critical points in the determination of species. 



Baker enumerates in his Synopsis forty-seven species; and after deducting from 

 Herbert's enumeration of forty-three species the ten species which Baker treats as 

 synonymous or as varieties, the latter writer added fourteen species to those known 

 to Herbert in 1847. 



Few exceptions can be taken to Mr. Baker's careful memoir; but the materials 

 from which he worked were for the most part limited to Herbarium specimens. 

 The cultivation and study of the living plants compel me to depart somewhat 

 from his specific determinations. 



C. ancyrensis of Herbert, which both Herbert and Baker place as a variety of 

 C. susianus, I consider entitled to separate specific rank. 



From C. minimus of De Cand., which is confined to the west side of Corsica 

 and to parts of Sardinia, I separate the mountain plant from the ranges above 



