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CALOCHORTUS VENUSTUS, 



Spotted-flowered Calochortus. 

 Linncan Glass — Hexandria. Order — Monogynia. Natural Order — Liliacete. 



This strikingly beautiful bulbous plant was introduced into England nearly twenty 

 years since, long enough, one would have supposed, to have made it a common 

 ornament of our gardens; it is, on the contrary, so rare, that it is only through the 

 obliging courtesy of Mr. H. Groom, of Clapham Eise, whose magnificent Tulip-beds 

 have deservedly gained for him a world-wide reputation, that we are enabled to 

 present our readers with a figure of it. 



This rarity can scarcely be attributed to its susceptibility to cold, as this species, 

 with several of the others, is a native of Northern California, where the winters 

 are not much less severe than in England, and the changes of temperature even 

 more trying than in our proverbially fickle climate ; we must, therefore, seek for 

 other causes for its partial, and we hope only temporary, disappearance from 

 cultivation. The common Tiger-flower, Tigridia pavonia, although brought from 

 intertropical Mexico, is nevertheless so easily grown and increased among us, that 

 good, flowering bulbs may be bought for two or three shillings a dozen, about half 

 the present price of a single plant of the Calochortus. 



Like the Tiger-flower, they are very impatient of wet in the winter season, and 

 it is doubtless to the combined effects of cold and moisture at this period, and from 

 want of protection from the autumnal rains, by which the maturation of the bulbs 

 is hindered, that so many of them have perished. 



Although brought from a climate where frost is by no means unknown, it is 

 not advisable to risk them in the open air during the winter months ; or, if the 

 experiment is tried, it should be only where the soil is sandy, and the bulb at least 

 six inches below the surface, and covered with a large pan or pot to preserve the 

 soil in as dry a state as possible. 



"Where there is the convenience of a frame to place over the bulbs, they may 

 safely be left in the ground all the year, the protection being of course removed as 

 soon as all danger from spring frosts has ceased. 



When this plan cannot be adopted, as the bulbs generally begin to grow before it 

 would be prudent to plant them in the open ground, it will be better to pot them 

 about the middle or end of February, in a soil composed of sandy loam, with a 

 little leaf mould, placing a little sand under and around each bulb, which should 



