PLANTING THE GARDEN 59 



taken up by many autumn-flowering bulbs, including 

 Cyclamen, Colchicums, and Crocus in several varieties. 



I would especially mention the great charm that 

 Cyclamen neapolitanum v. album, illustrated on 

 page 97, gives to the garden in September and October, 

 raising its numerous heads of pure white flowers from 

 the ground before the leaves are visible, which latter, 

 when they appear, are of a beautiful green, marbled 

 with white. One very interesting feature of the 

 Cyclamen is the curious habit it has of coiling up its 

 seed stems into a spiral, in such a way as to bring the 

 seed capsule down to the earth, and very often into it. 

 This, I think, illustrates in a remarkable degree the 

 care taken by some plants to protect their seeds, 

 when, by flowering late, they are exposed to the 

 inclement part of the year. 



Of the many Colchicums, perhaps C. speciosum (see 

 illustration on page 112) is the most imposing throwing 

 up its glorious cup-like flowers six to twelve inches high, 

 from a carpet of some dwarf growing plant, like the 

 smaller mossy saxifrages, or Arenaria. 



One has to grow these beautiful autumn-flowering 

 gems to thoroughly appreciate how welcome they are, 

 coming at such a late time of the year. 



While on the subject of bulbs, I may say that there 

 are quite a large number of dwarf growing bulbous 

 plants, whose native place is the Alps, which make 



