~ 
EARLY SPRING-FLOWERING SPECIES OF SCILLA. 335 
Hygrophorus calyptreformis, B. and Br. Plentiful in Holme Lacy 
Park 
Strobilomyces strobilaceus, Berk. Two specimens in Haywood 
orest. i 
Cynophallus caninus, Fr. One specimen in the woods round the 
Wrekin, Shropshire. 
ON THE EARLY SPRING-FLOWERING SPECIES OF 
SC j 
nn 
By M. T. Masters, M.D., F.L.S. 
[The following descriptive account of some of the greatest orna- 
ments of our gardens in early spring, is taken from the pages of the 
‘Gardeners’ Chronicle.’ Only those species and varieties are mentioned 
which are of greatest horticultural interest,—precisely those, as often 
happens, which are most involved as to their synonymy. 
l. SCILLA BIFOLIA, Linn.; Bot. Mag. t. 146 ; Kunth, Enum. iv. 
316; Redouté, Lil. t. 254.—Bulb ovoid. Leaves 2-3, spreading, re- 
curved, linear lance-shaped, channelled, terminating in a short, blunt, 
cylindrical point. Scape or common flower-stalk as long as or longer 
than the leaves. Bracts minute. Pedicels spreading, lower ones 
longer than the upper ones. Flowers 5—6, blue. Segments of the 
perianth oblong, obtuse, spreading. 
We take this to be the type, the nearest to the wild form, intended 
by Linnzus and the older writers. There are in gardens several 
varieties of it, differing in the size and colour of their flowers, in the 
period of their blooming, etc. It is a matter of opinion whether or no 
these should be considered as species. For our own part, we consider 
them as varieties of one species, for three reasons. First, that they 
all have certain characters in common, characters of too slight mo- 
ment to be of value as generie distinctions, but available for specifie 
purposes. Among them we may mention, as easily appreciable, 
blunt thickened point to the leaf, but none have it so well marked 
as S. bifolia, wherein it is sometimes a quarter of an inch in 
length. All the varieties have this character. Next, the several 
varieties run one into the other, so that, in the dried condition at 
