6b. CROCUS GRANATENSIS. 



Section: Involucrati; parallelo-fibrosi (Herbert): Schizostigma; autumnal (Baker). 



Crocus granatensis, Boiss. Exsic; G. Maw, Hist. Crocus in Journ. Linn. Soc, Bot., vol. xix, p. 372 



Crocus nudiflorus, Boiss., Voyage Bot. Esp. p. 600. 



Crocus serotinus, in part, G. Maw, Synops. Genus Crocus in Gard. Chron. new ser. vol. xvi, p. 234. 



I abstain from giving a figure or a lengthened description of this plant, because I am in some doubt 

 about its being specially distinct from C. nudiflorus, and I am only acquainted with it from the 

 specimens in Monsieur Boissier's herbarium. It is one of the nearly allied autumnal Crocuses of 

 western Europe, of which C. nudiflorus is the most familiar type. Its corm, fully an inch (0.025 

 metre) in diameter, is larger than that of C. nudiflorus; and 'in none of the herbarium specimens 

 can I detect stolon-growths from the corm, which are always present in C. nudiflorus at the flowering- 

 time. It differs also from C. nudiflorus in occasionally producing more than one flower from within 

 the same set of sheathing leaves. 



It differs from C. serotinus, C. Salzmanni, C. asturicus, and C. C/usii, in the leaves being dormant at the 

 time of flowering. 



The Corm Tunic consists of rather strong fibro-membrane, split up into flat, narrow, fibroid divisions. 



The Sheathing Leaves are from three to four inches (0.075—0.100 metre) in height, and are shorter than 

 the proper spathe. The Proper Spathe is monophyllous reaching to within about three-quarters of 

 an inch (0.019 metre) of the throat. The Perianth Segments are about an inch and a half (0.038 

 metre) in length, violet in colour, and apparently without feathered or striped markings. The Pistil 

 exceeds the Stamens in height ; the Style dividing near the level of the summit of the anthers, is 

 produced into a mass of branching capillary orange stigmata. 



C. granatensis is a native of the Sierra Tegeda and the mountains of Granada, 

 at an altitude of from 4000 to 6500 feet; flowering in September and October. 

 It was collected in 1850, in the Sierra Nevada, by Seiior del Campo, of Granada, 

 and distributed by him as C. nudiflorus. 



It is possible that the species referred to by Willkomm and Lange in their 

 Prodromus Flora Hispanica, as C. serotinus from the Sierra Morena, may be this 

 plant; and that the Crocus in the Webb Herbarium at Florence, labelled "nudiflorus, 

 from the Sierra d'Alfacar, 1000-5000 feet, October 1844," is also C. granatensis. 



I have made several ineffectual attempts to introduce it to cultivation, and 

 hope that collectors visiting the south of Spain in the autumn will endeavour to 

 obtain it. 



