50 THE SPRING GARDEN [CH. 



reticulata; it is strange how seldom one sees it in 

 gardens, and yet my experience of it has been that 

 it increased more freely and grew more vigorously than 

 almost any other bulb, and when last removed, it was 

 found that from having been a small clump of half 

 a dozen, it had become almost half a hundred. On 

 the other hand, I have known of a large bed suddenly 

 dying out, owing no doubt to the ravages of a grub. It 

 may be the same grub which is often so fatal to the 

 Narcissus. 



Perhaps the most persistently constant spring bloomer 

 is the Iris stylosa. Its flowering season is from Nov- 

 ember to April. It thrives in poor soil, and is all the 

 better for the intrusion of the roots of stronger plants 

 beneath, or the piling on of stones above the surface. 

 The flower has no stem, it grows on the elongated 

 style (hence its name), which is often 9 or 10 inches 

 long, and the seed pod will be found almost under 

 ground. The white variety is very beautiful. 



The old-fashioned single and double Snowdrop is one 

 of the best known of our spring flowers, and the colder 

 the season the more satisfactory seems its growth. 



Not so many years ago few people imagined what a very 

 numerous and widely extended family the Snowdrop is ; 

 only one sort was then grown Galanthus Nivalis. 



It was in the winter of 1854-5, I think, in the trenches 

 before Sevastopol, that the large Crimean Snowdrop was 



