176 



garden soil. They are very hardy, and the only difficulty 

 is their liability to be thrown out by the frost, when the 

 ground is bare, towards spring. To remedy this evil, 

 some light substance should be thrown over them, to shade 

 them from the action of the sun. After flowering, when 

 the leaves have decayed, the roots may be taken up, and 

 kept, until they are wanted to plant in autumn, in some 

 cool, dry place ; or they may remain in the ground a num- 

 <ber of years without removing. 



" Haworth, who has for thirty years paid particular at- 

 tention to the Crocus, and raised many varieties from seed, 

 found that the blue, white, and purple flowering kinds rip- 

 ened their seeds more readily than the yellow, and that 

 the leaves of the latter were narrower through all the spe- 

 cies and varieties. When this genus is in flower, the 

 germen is situated underground almost close to the bulb ; 

 but some weeks after the decay of the flower, it emerges 

 on a white peduncle and ripens its seed above ground. 

 This extraordinary mode of semination is peculiarly con- 

 spicuous in C. nudiflorus, which flowers without leaves in 

 autumn, and throws up its germen the following spring 

 like the Colehicum." 



The Autumnal Crocus is supposed to have come origi- 

 nally from the East. The flowers are of a purple, lilac, or 

 pale-blue, blooming in October ; the leaves grow all win- 

 ter. This species of Crocus is also called Saffron, and the 

 medicine so called is obtained from it. It is (7. sativus, 

 and is rarely to be seen hi our garden. 



CTTPHEA. 



[Prom a Greek word, signifying gibbous, in reference to the form of its calyx.] 



Ctiphea Ignea, commonly but incorrectly called C. 

 platyeentra. A fine dwarf plant for bedding out, with 

 scarlet and purple tubular flowers, which are produced in 



