Spring Crocuses 



with purple on a buff ground, but from a garden point of 

 view the diphyllous form is in most respects the better 

 plant, having larger flowers and varying endlessly in the 

 degree, or even absence, of the outside purple featherings, 

 and even varying in this respect from season to season, I 

 am sorry to say, for I have sometimes selected especially 

 fine seedlings for their richness, or absence, of feather- 

 ing, but after a season or two they have reversed their 

 scheme of decoration. Except a few forms of C. versicolor 

 I have never known another species of Crocus vary as to 

 the markings of the offsets. The diphyllous form flowers 

 over a long period, and that means that one seldom gets 

 a mass out at one time on a clump. 



On the contrary, the monophyllous form scarcely 

 varies at all in feathering, and is most punctual in blossom- 

 ing in the early part of January, and almost every plant 

 in a clump will be flowering at the same time. It stands 

 up higher among its upright leaves than the diphyllous 

 one among its longer recumbent foliage. I used to 

 know which of the two forms the different nurserymen 

 stocked, but both forms have done well here, and it is 

 years since I bought any, and so have lost touch with their 

 sources. The diphyllous form has sometimes been listed 

 as C. Imperati longiflorus, or purpureus, and such a name 

 would, I expect, still bring you that form, but there was 

 never any distinguishing name to the monophyllous race. 

 There are some good white forms of the diphyllous one 

 pure white except for a cream-coloured exterior to the 

 outer segments, which is the var. albiflos of Herbert. 

 Another has the rich purple featherings of the type on 



