244 AUTUMNAL FLOWERS 



simultaneously with its sisters on the veldt, so an early 

 frost is fatal to its fine and free vermilion blooms. 



Those whom business or pleasure may have taken 

 to the Medoc during the claret vintage can scarcely 

 have failed to notice a bright yellow, crocus-like flower 

 that springs in September by sunny waysides and 

 cottage fronts. This we choose to call the winter 

 daffodil; goodness only knows why, for it is not a 

 daffodil, and it does not flower in winter, but in harvest 

 time. Its botanical name is Sternbergia lutea, and it 

 is one of the many flowers which has been claimed as 

 the Saviour's ' lilies of the field.' It grows wild along 

 both shores of the Mediterranean as far east as Syria 

 and Persia, and it flowers freely in hot corners of 

 Surrey and Sussex gardens. But as this is the season 

 when amateurs are studying bulb lists, it may be useful 

 to observe that nobody need attempt to grow this 

 pretty plant north of Trent, unless he would court 

 disappointment. That, at least, is the conclusion to 

 which I have been driven after five-and-twenty years' 

 endeavour to coax forth its chalices of shining gold to 

 gladden the autumn border. In our humid west the 

 bulbs multiply apace, and sheaves of foliage encourage 

 deceptive hopes year after year, but the plant requires 

 more baking than they can get here. Has anybody 

 succeeded with it in Scotland ? 



There are other desirable flowering things which we 

 must forego just counterpoise, I suppose, to our 

 privilege in the matter of whiter cold. The splendid 

 trumpet flower (Tecoma or Bignonia radicans) defies 

 twenty degrees of frost on a south wall, and has mounted 



