6 THE GENUS CROCUS. 



sand feet, are below the average size and smaller than the purple form of the 

 Apennines. The variety found on Monte Senario, above Florence, is exceptionally 



large. 



The length of the pistil is also very variable, or rather there are two forms 

 of pistil: in & the small varieties, siculus and albiflorus, the stigma does not reach 

 above the level of the middle of the anther; in the larger and normal forms the 

 level of the stigma is generally a little higher than the level of the summit of the 

 anther; but this is not invariable, as some of the larger forms have a short pistil. 

 The colour of the pistil is normally orange, but in the variety leucostigma it is of 



a pale straw-colour. 



Crocus vemus has been a popular garden plant for three hundred years at least. 

 Although William Turner, in his work on The Navies of Herbes, published in 1548, 

 does not specifically distinguish C. vemus from other Crocuses, it was probably one 

 of those then known; Gerard, fifty years later, figured and described a number of 

 varieties: indeed, there is no reliable evidence as to how far back it may have been 

 a cultivated plant in England. 



Gaspard Pelletier's reference to its having been found wild in the Netherlands 

 in 1 6 10 points to its ancient cultivation there, as it was probably an escape. It 

 would be useless to reproduce the old descriptions of the numerous varieties of 

 C. vermis referred to by the earlier authors, as they cannot be now identified with 

 certainty. Modern bulb lists particularlize the great variety of forms in cultivation; 

 and the whole of these, whether derived from seed or selection, can, I believe, be 

 identified with wild varieties. 



As an early spring garden flower there are perhaps few plants that have such 

 a wide-spread popularity or commercial importance as Crocus vemus. It has been 

 cultivated by the Dutch for at least three centuries; in England the cultivation of 

 corms for sale is of equal importance, though it is limited to a small district. 



I am indebted to Mr. G. F. Barrell, of Spalding, for a full and exhaustive 

 account of bulb-cultivation in South Holland Lincolnshire and extract from it the 

 following notes on the cultivation of Crocuses: — 



"The extreme south-east of Lincolnshire is the centre of English bulb-culture. 

 The land has all been reclaimed from the estuary of the Wash, formed by the 

 outfall of the rivers Witham, Welland, Nene, and Ouse, by a process known as 

 warping, which leaves a rich alluvial deposit admirably suited for the growth of 

 every description of bulb or tuber. The tract of country in which the bulb-trade 

 finds a home, is a small belt some twenty miles in length, and not more than three 

 or four in breadth, extending from Sutton Bridge (which is only divided from the 

 adjoining county of Norfolk by the mouth of the river Nene), through the towns of 

 Long Sutton and Holbeach, to Spalding, which forms the head-quarters of the traffic. 



