SPRING CROCUSES 65 



Spring Crocus (C. vernus). He has seen a common 

 night-moth (Plusia gamma] and the Painted Lady 

 Butterfly and the Humble-bee visiting the flowers. 

 The anthers open first and shed their pollen ; after- 

 wards the stigmas ripen and expand. If good-sized 

 Insects are attracted to the flowers, it is well, for then 

 the pollen will be laid upon the stigmas of another 

 plant ; but failing this, the stigmas curve downwards 

 upon the anthers, and get dusted ; fertilised, but not 

 cross-fertilised. 



Our common yellow spring Crocus is C. aureus, a 

 native of Turkey, Greece and Asia Minor. It is 

 known by its short and little-branched stigmas, and its 

 suddenly diverging anthers. Crocus vernus > the 

 purple or white spring Crocus of the gardens, is a 

 native of the Alps. Its stigmas are of a deep orange 

 colour, and contrast strongly with the rest of the 

 flower. 



The seeds of the Crocus ripen at midsummer, and 

 should be sown at once if it is intended to raise bulbs 

 from them. The plant raised from seed is not ready 

 to flower for two or three years. Nearly all our 

 Crocus bulbs are grown in Holland and Lincoln- 

 shire. 



Plants which bloom very early or very late in the 

 year, do so at the expense of food laid up in the 

 previous summer. Hence they are often bulbous, 

 containing much starch or sugar in the coats of the 

 bulb, which are either future leaves, or the bases of 

 old ones. Sometimes they have tuberous roots, like 

 Cyclamen, or a perennial, woody stem, like the 

 Mezereon. Annual plants, with thin, fibrous roots 



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