Snowdrops 



Melvillei, another Dunrobin Snowdrop, and named after its 

 raiser. It is a very well-shaped, round flower, but still 

 quite of the nivalis type, and very slightly marked with 

 green ; in fact in one form I have, sent to me by Mr. 

 Melville, the horseshoe has disappeared, leaving in its 

 place only the heads of two of its nails, little round green 

 dots on each side of the nick. It is a dwarf form, but so 

 sturdy that it lasts a very long time in flower. Dwarfer 

 still is a curious seedling of Elwesii that my own garden 

 gave me. When first it begins to flower the immense glo- 

 bular flowers are borne on such short stems that when the 

 buds hang free from the goldbeater-skin covering of the 

 spathe, their tips rest on the ground, but later the stems 

 lengthen and lift them. Mr. Farrer suggested the name 

 of " Fat Boy " for it, when he first saw its solid obesity, 

 and it now behaves as strangely in his rock garden in 

 Yorkshire as it does here. The most curious thing about 

 it is that it produces three and sometimes four flowers 

 from between each pair of leaves, and these follow each 

 other, and each succeeding one is lifted on a taller stem above 

 the swelling ovary of the last and now fading flower. So 

 that it begins as a dwarf early form and ends as a tall and 

 late one. Among some imported bulbs of Elwesii I picked 

 out a very late flowering one ; I see by the figure I made 

 of it that it was on the 6th of March 1906. It was also 

 very large, and had the second green spot converted into 

 a band across the centre of the inner segment. This one 

 bulb has flowered every year until this, but has made no in- 

 crease, and in some seasons the flower has lasted quite fresh 

 into April, being the latest of all my Snowdrops. This year 

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