My Garden in Spring 



not exist, for I believe there are several in Bitton Garden, 

 where the two species have grown side by side for nearly a 

 century, that are distinctly intermediate, but not large and 

 handsome enough to rank for garden purposes as C. 

 Atkinsii, which is a bolder plant with larger flowers than 

 those of either parent. C. Coum album is a difficult plant 

 to obtain. Many lists contain the name, but the plants 

 that arrive bearing it are either C. ibericum, as rosy as red 

 tape, or C. cilicicum, an autumn-flowering member of the 

 family with conspicuously mottled leaves. One or two 

 such names seem to exist in catalogues simply to provide 

 aliases for plants. It is rather amusing to gamble with 

 some and see what you will get for them. Crocus lactiflorus 

 I especially recommend ; it is a bran-pie, lucky dip, and 

 surprise packet all in one ; you never know whether an 

 order for half a dozen will produce an autumnal or vernal 

 species, and many of my rarities came to me so named. 

 Lathyrus magellanicus is another, Anacyclus formosus a third. 

 I imagine no plant is grown by the author of the list 

 under these names, and so the packer turns round three 

 times and catches what he can. I am not sure that I am 

 not getting rather extravagant over Cyclamen. I love them 

 so that I order a few hundreds each season, and sow seeds 

 as well, but I never yet saw a garden containing too many 

 of them, and it will be a long day before this one provides 

 enough to please me. With one species and another they 

 are in flower very nearly all the year round. Coum and 

 ibericum begin with the year, and before they are over 

 C. repandum has opened out its ivy-shaped leaves, pushing 

 them along underground until they come up far away 

 from the centre of the corm, making you think they must 

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