PART II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



199 



Where the natural soil is too cold for this 

 plant, it will be best to give it a home on 

 sunny parts of the rock-garden. 



Crocus Sieberi (Sieber*s C.\ A small 

 species, from the mountains of Greece. We 

 have Crocuses that flower in Spring, and 

 Crocuses that flower in autumn ; but this 

 hardy mountaineer flowers in winter and 

 earliest spring, anticipating all the others. 

 Very dwarf, with pale violet flowers ; is 

 not at all ditflcult to cultivate, and should 

 be placed o;i some little sunny ledge or 

 other spot where it may be safe from 

 being overrun 



C. speciosus (Showy Autumn 0.). The 

 finest of the autumn-flowering Crocuses, 

 and coining into beautiful bloom when the 

 wet gusts begin to play with the fallen 

 leaves, at the end of September or begin- 

 ning of October ; the flowers, bluish- violet, 

 striped internally with deep purple lines, 

 smooth at the throat, the divisions most 

 deeply veined near their base ; the stigmas 

 of a fine orange colour, cut so as to appear 

 as if fringed ; the leaves appearing about 

 the same time as the flowers, but not 

 attaining their full development till the 

 following spring. It seeds freely in this 

 country, and may be readily increased in 

 that way, and by division. Crimea and 

 neighbouring regions. 



C. vernus (Spring Crocus). One of the 

 earliest cultivated species. Alps, Pyrenees, 

 Tyrol, Italy, and Dalmatia. Naturalised 

 in several parts of England. Remarkable 

 for its range of colour, from pure white 

 to deep purple, endless varieties being 

 generally intermixed in its native habitats, 

 and corresponding with the horticultural 

 varieties of our gardens. Flowers early 

 in March at low elevations, and as late as 

 June and July in the higher Alps. The 

 parent of nearly all the purple, white, and 

 striped Crocuses grown in Holland. 



C. versicolor (Striped C/.). This is a 

 distinct spring-flowering kind, which has 

 spread into a good many varieties, and is 

 abundantly grown in Holland. The 

 ground colour of the flower is white, but 

 richly striped with purple, the throat 

 sometimes white, sometimes yellow, the 

 inside being smooth, by which it can be 

 readily distinguished from Crocus vernus, 

 which has the inside of the throat hairy. 



Dean Herbert says this "likes to have 

 its corm deep in the ground. If its seed 

 is sown in a three-inch pot plunged in a 

 sand-bed, and left there, by the time the 

 seedlings are two or three years old, the 

 bulbs will be found crowded and flattened 

 against the bottom of the pot ; and, if the 

 hole in the pot is large enough to allow 

 their escape, some of them will be found 

 growing in the sand under the pot." It, 

 however, thrives in any ordinary garden 

 soil. 



Crocus zonatus. Bright vinous-lilac 

 flowers golden at the base, abundant about 

 the middle of September ; highly orna- 

 mental and free-flowering, and easy of 

 culture. The flowers come before the 

 leaves, which do not appear till spring. 



CYANANTHUS LOBATUS (Lobed 

 C.). A distinct Himalayan rock plant, 

 about 4 inches high, flowering in late 

 summer ; purplish blue with a whitish 

 centre. It thrives in the rock-garden 

 in sunny chinks in a mixture of sandy 

 peat and leaf-mould, with plenty of 

 moisture during the growing season. 

 Increased freely by cuttings. The 

 seed requires a dry, favourable season 

 to ripen it ; in wet weather the large 

 erect, persistent calyx becomes filled 

 with water, which remains and rots 

 the included seed vessel. 



Cyananthus incanus. This quite 

 differs from C. lobatus, flowering more 

 freely ; like that species, it should be 

 planted in a dry, sunny, well-drained 

 position, as, if the situation be too damp, 

 the fleshy root-stock is liable to rot. It 

 is a good plan to place something over 

 the plant during the resting season. The 

 flowers are not so large as those of lobatus, 

 but they are more charming in colour, 

 which is enhanced in effect by the white 

 tuft of hairs in the throat of the corolla. 



CYCLAMEN (Sowbread). Except 

 the Persian kind, these are as hardy 

 as Primroses ; but they love the 

 shelter and shade of low bushes or 

 hill copses, where they may nestle and 

 bloom in security. In the places they 



