My Garden in Spring 



too ; and as among the autumn Crocuses only the first, 

 C. Scharojanii, and the last, C. vitellinus, are yellow, and 

 both of these are very rare, the golden buds of C. 

 chrysanthus are a veritable foretaste of Spring. It is quite 

 otherwise with Spring-flowering Croci, a large proportion 

 of which have either yellow flowers or at least the three 

 outer segments of some shade of buff or straw colour on 

 the outside. Of those now in cultivation, for the one truly 

 autumnal yellow, Scharojanii, we have eleven Spring ones, 

 with flowers entirely yellow on the inner surface, four 

 that have yellow forms as well as white or lilac ones, and 

 several with buff outer segments, at any rate in some of 

 their forms. They may be divided as follows : 

 Normally yellow : 



Aureus, susianus, stellaris, ancyrensis, gargaricus, Korol- 

 kowii, Olivieri, Suterianus, graveolens, Balansae, chry- 

 santhus. 

 With yellow forms : 



Candidus, reticulatus, biflorus, a?rius. 

 With buff exterior : 



Imperati, suaveolens, dalmaticus, etruscus, versicolor, and 



vernus. 



The two last are seldom seen with any yellow about 

 them, but I have some versicolor collected near Mentone 

 that in some forms have straw-coloured outer segments, 

 and a seedling I got here from vernus Mme. Mina has quite 

 a Nankeen tint outside when in bud. I have never seen 

 a yellow Crocus growing wild, and without close acquaint- 

 ance with them in their homes it is impossible to say what 

 causes this preponderance of yellow in vernal species. 

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