Numerous Early Comers 



starts away from its neighbour, and you see that they are 

 divided right down instead of joining to form a tube as in 

 Crocus and Colchicum. Bulbocodium vernwn behaves in 

 the same way, but the segments of the perianth are 

 furnished at the base with spurlike outgrowths which 

 make them arrow-shaped, and keep them together longer 

 and more perfectly than in Merendera. I like to grow 

 these plants and to admire the transition they show from 

 free perianth segments to the long, perfectly-formed tube 

 as found in Colchicum. 



Tucked away in a sunny corner among Semper- 

 vivums lives another of my minute favourites. I have 

 often been accused of growing and loving too many 

 microscopic plants, and perhaps Allium Chamaemoly is 

 alone sufficient evidence to convict me. For some years 

 I was surprised to find seedpods and yet to have 

 missed its flowers, then a sharp look-out showed me 

 that they appeared much earlier than I expected, and 

 were very much smaller than I had hoped. A careful 

 search in late December and throughout January generally 

 reveals a flower or two. They are certainly very small, 

 about the size of a bee's knee their detractors might 

 say, but they are dainty little green and white stars, 

 and in January it is very pleasant to find anything 

 that is a flower. 



Another first comer of the year, but different in 

 every way from Chamaemoly, except that you do not see 

 it in many gardens, is the Toothwort of the Pyrenees, 

 Lathraea dandestina. It ought to be in every garden, 

 for it is very beautiful when in full flower, looking like 

 a colony of some very dwarf purple Crocus, but when 

 in 



