26 Commercial Gardening 



the Saffron Crocus, purple lilac with violet veins; speciosus, bright blue 

 autumn; zonatus, autumn, rose lilac with an orange throat; C. Imperati 

 lilac purple, veined outside; C. biflorus, known as the "Scotch" or "Cloth 

 of Silver" Crocus, with many varieties with colours from snowy white to 

 rosy lilac, pale purple, mauve, &c. C. pulchellus is a lovely autumn-flower- 

 ing Crocus with bright-lilac flowers having a yellow eye slightly striped. 



Cyclamen (SOWBREAD). The Persian Cyclamen is dealt with in the 

 next section. The hardy kinds have become popular of late years for 

 rock gardens, cold greenhouses, &c. They are easily grown in shady or 

 chalky loam, and are raised from seeds and by division of the tubers. Of 

 the many kinds known these are among the best: africanum', Atkinsi, 

 with several varieties; cilicicum; Coum] europceum; ibericum; neapoli- 

 tanum (hedercefolium); repandum', &c. The twisted flowers are mostly 

 purple in colour, but there are several white forms, and with few excep- 

 tions the roundish leaves are beautifully marbled and veined. 



Dactylis glomerata variegata. This popular grass, with silvery striped 

 leaves, is largely used for borders and beds in which plants with darker- 

 coloured foliage are used. Easily propagated by division in autumn or 

 spring. 



Daffodils, Forcing 1 and Open-air. To the commercial gardener of 

 to-day, whether he devotes his energies to land or glass, the Daffodil has 

 become an indispensable part of his stock-in-trade, a crop he cannot well 

 afford to be without. It is in the very nature of things and by reason 

 of its many sections and endless varieties a successional flowering plant, 

 capable of affording a supply of flowers for weeks on end provided the 

 right selection be grown; and the grower who rightly appreciates this side 

 of the subject is the one who can show the heaviest margin of profit. In- 

 deed a chief difficulty which besets a beginner is that of selecting suitable 

 varieties, and large sums of money have been dropped in the past, and, 

 doubtless, in the future will go the same way, because growers have 

 endeavoured to suit their own fancy rather than consult the public taste. 

 To-day the market florist who desires to make both ends meet, and to put 

 a little aside for a rainy day into the bargain, should never ignore the fact 

 that the leading flower markets throughout the British Isles are great 

 educational centres, a reflex, as it were, of public opinion and often good 

 taste well and unmistakably expressed through the medium of the florist 

 decorator, and his daily requirements or purchases. It is for the market 

 florist to cater for such requirements; in other words, to grow the thing 

 that sells. A flower market like Covent Garden, for example, is a great 

 leveller of things, putting on no side, though capable of great things inside. 

 The fact that a certain variety of Daffodil costs so many guineas per bulb 

 is of but little account if the commission agent finds the public will have 

 none of it; hence, in such matters, it is no use kicking against the pricks. 



How TO FORCE THE DAFFODIL. In the forcing department a matter 

 of primary consideration is catching the early markets, since a few days 

 one had almost written hours might mean a difference of pounds in the 



