THE GENUS CROCUS. 



200 



Basal Tunic a strong coriaceous disc surrounded by radiating wiry fibres. 

 Sheathing Leaves about four, falling short of the proper spathe, from half an inch to two and a half 



inches (0.013—0.063 metre) in length. 

 e. * r „„1 „i,™,f «i reaching to the level of the flowers at the flowering-time, and produced to a 



/V^r Sjto/A* diphyllous, from two to three inches (0.050-0.075 metre) in length, exceeding the sheathing 

 leaves and reaching nearly to the throat. 



evenly suffused with dull brown. 



glabrous, orange, ^ of an inch (0.00006 metre) in diameter. 



orange-scarlet Stigmata. , . , r * ^ o 



feife fullv an inch (0025 metre) in height at the flowering-time, produced to a height of two and a 

 ^halffnchesTo 063 metre) at'the maturity of the capsule; the Ovary striped with purple 

 C^n* two-thirds of an inch in height (o.oi 7 metre), and one-third of an inch (0.0084 metre) broad 



as the body of the seed. 



G™« W^. has a much less extended range than the nearly allied species 

 C reticulata, being confined to a limited district in south-west Russia and the 

 Crimea between 4 4^ and 49 degrees north latitude, and 28^ and 34 degrees east 

 longitude. It has been recorded from near Yampol (Jampol), on the river Dniester, 

 and Nestouta, near Balta, in South Podolia; near Uman in the Province of Kiev; 

 Olivopol on the river Bug, and Odessa in the Province of Kherson; in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the river Dnieper in the Provinces of Kherson and Taunda; and 

 from Sebastopol and Inkerman, in the Crimea. 



Herbert placed it as a variety only of C. reticulata; but few botanists would 

 now associate the two species. Besides the difference in colour, C. suszan^ is readily 

 distinguished from C. reticulata by its much longer pistil, the style dmding near 

 the throaf by its red seed, and ciliated leaves: the perianth segments are reflexed. 

 It is a species very variable in its markings; in some forms the outer surface of 

 the outer segments are of a uniform deep bronze colour, passing through a variety 

 of bronzed striping and feathering, to an external suffusion of dull brown (C. fulvus 



of Pallas). . . , 



Tchihatcheff confounds C. susianus with C. gargancus, and erroneously records 



