2gz THE GENUS CROCUS. 



Crocus biflorus has long been in cultivation; and the most familiar garden form 

 is the "Cloth of Silver," or Scotch Crocus (Plate LIX, Figs. 3 and 4), apparently 

 identical with Tenore's van /3, found wild between Ariano and Monte Calvello in 



South Italy. 



Crocus biflorus flowers in the early spring from January to March. It has a 

 wider range from west to east than any other species, extending from Genoa into 

 north-west Persia, through forty degrees of longitude; and ranging north and south 

 from Podolia to Lycia, through eleven or twelve degrees of latitude. The western 

 forms of the species are paler in colour than those from the east, in which purple 

 flower-colouring prevails. 



It is o-enerally a lowland plant. I know of no records of its occurrence in 

 Europe at alpine elevations, though it is said to reach elevations of from four 

 thousand to six thousand feet in Lycia and the Caucasus. It occurs very generally 

 throughout Italy from Lombardy to the north of Sicily, and has been recorded from 

 the following localities: — The Island of Elba; meadows near Monte Baldo, on the 

 east side of the Lake of Garda; Verona, on the height above the city and in 

 meadows near the Porta Vittoria; Brescia; Bergamo; Milan; Mantua; Parma; Bo- 

 logna; Genoa, its most western known habitat; Lucca and Pisa. Near Florence 

 it occurs in the Cascine, and also at Certosa, where the striped type form grows 

 intermixed with the variety cstriatus. A large striped form grows in the woods on 

 Monte Senario at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet. In the Botanic 

 Garden at Rome both the type form and var. cstriatus are found growing sponta- 

 neously; and a pure white variety occurs in the garden of the Villa Borghese. 

 A bluish variety occurs at Ossolini, near Naples. The type occurs also in the 

 park at Caserta; near Naples, in the Valle de St. Rocca; at Camaldoli; at Albano; 

 on Monte Barbara; and in a wood between Pozzuoli and Naples; and Monte Flaito, 

 above Castellamare ; at Melfi at the foot of Monte Vulture, on the east side of 

 the Apennines; between Ariano and Monte Calvello; near Monte Vallone; St. Sil- 

 vester; Tavoliere di Puglia; Bari; Persano; Monte Pisano; and near Potenza and 

 Montalbano in the Basilicata. In Sicily it occurs along the north coast at Mistretta, 

 Caronia, and San Fratello. Near. Trieste at Gabrovizza, Prosecco, and Opschina 

 var. Weld&ni occurs, and also its white sub-variety, occasionally intermixed with the 

 type feathered form. 



The var. Wcldcni is not unfrequent in sunny pastures on the Dalmatian coast 

 south of Trieste, as at Lemess; between Dernis and Verlika; on Mount Marian near 

 Spalatro; at Radigne; Beliak; and on Monte Bossanka, and other mountains about 

 Rao-usa. It has also been recorded from Istria, and from Mount Klan, in Southern 



Servia. 



It is not a frequent species in Greece and Turkey, but has been recorded from 



