574 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



nity as the tulip. There are a great many var- 

 ieties, both single and double. Mason enumer- 

 ates seventy-five, the single and semi-double 

 flowers being as much prized as the double. 



A fine double anemone should have a strong, 

 elastic, and erect stem, not less than nine inches 

 high. The flower should be at least two inches 

 and a half in diameter, consisting of an exterior 

 row of large, substantial, well rounded petals, 

 or guard leaves, at first horizontally extended, 

 and then turning a little upwards, so as to form 

 a broad shallow cup, the interior part of which 

 should contain a great number of long small 

 petals, overlying each other, and rather turning 

 from the centre outwards. There are a great 

 number of small, slender, and imperfect stamens, 

 intermixed with the petals; but they are short, 

 and not easily discernible. The colour should 

 be clear and distinct when diversified in the 

 same flower; or brilliant and striking, if it con- 

 sists only of one colour, as blue, crimson, or 

 scarlet, in which case the bottom of the broad 

 exterior petals is generally white. But the 

 beauty and contrast is considerably increased, 

 when both the exterior and interior petals are 

 regularly marked with alternate blue and white, 

 or pink and white stripes, which in the broad 

 petals should not extend quite to the margin. 



These flowers are propagated by seed for ob- 

 taining new varieties, and by dividing the root 

 for continuing approved sorts. The seed should 

 be collected from the best flowers, and collected 

 gradually as it ripens, else it is apt to be blown 

 away with the wind. It is to be sown and 

 treated exactly in the same way as described for 

 the ranunculus, and the seedlings, like them, 

 will blow strong the second year. There will 

 be found but few double flowers among the 

 seedlings; but the greater number of broad petals 

 the flower of the seed bearer possesses, the greater 

 is the probability of procuring large double 

 flowers from its seed. 



When the root of an approved sort is care- 

 fully divided, every division will blow the first 

 year. 



The first grown selected roots are to be planted 

 in the same way as the ranunculus; and as the 

 anemone is a hardier plant, it may be put into 

 the ground in autumn. When they come up 

 they are to be watered and protected from the 

 weather. After the bloom is over, the plants 

 are to be shielded from moisture, so as that the 

 roots, which are very succulent, may dry, and not 

 spring afresh. They are at the proper time to 

 be taken up and sorted; and as they are very 

 brittle, care must be taken in handling them. 



The soil best suited for the anemone is a fresh 

 loam, rather sandy. The roots should be covered 

 to the depth of three inches. 



The roots of the anemone are solid, flattened 

 masses, not unlike ginger. Those that have been 



two or three years in the ground, attain a gi'eat 

 size. They are generally sold by weight as one 

 root, and are divided afterwards at the period 

 of planting. 



Besides the two species just described, the a. 

 Pulsatilla, or pasque flower, is also common in 

 flower borders. 



The Crocus (crocus vermis). Natural family 

 iridece; triatidria, monogynia, of Linnaeus. This 

 plant was so named by Theophrastus. In Ovid's 

 metamorphoses, a youth so named is fabled to 

 have been changed into the flower. There are 

 several species of this genus; and the brilliancy 

 of their flowers, but, above all, the early period 

 at which tliey blow, renders them favourites in 

 the flower garden. 



When these plants are in flower, the gei-men 

 or seed vessel is still under ground, almost close 

 to the bulb; and it is not tiU some weeks after 

 the decay of the flower, that it emerges on a 

 white peduncle, and ripens its seeds above gi'ound. 

 This peculiarity is very conspicuous in the naked 

 autumnal crocus, (c. nudiflorus), which flowers 

 without leaves in autumn, and throws up its 

 germen the following spring, in a similar way 

 as already described with the meadow saffron. 

 It is supposed that the native country of the 

 crocus is Asia, though several species are natur- 

 alized in Europe; and three are found wild in 

 England, the spring crocus, the safFi-on, and the 

 autumnal naked crocus. 



There are from twelve to twenty leading var- 

 ieties of the garden crocus, all single. The 

 colours are yellow, blue, purple, white, and 

 vai'iegated. 



According to Haworth, the seeds should be 

 sown immediately after they are gathered, in 

 light eai'th, in a shady but open situation. Sift 

 over them half an inch of earth the first autumn, 

 and take them up the second year, and imme- 

 diately replant them. Add another half inch 

 of earth the third autumn, and the following 

 spring most of the plants will show fluwers in 

 the midst of their fourth crop of leaves. After- 

 wards they may be treated like old bulbs, and 

 planted in the open borders or shrubbery, on 

 patches or rows. The bulbs of the crocus being 

 renewed every year, and the new bulb fonned 

 on the top of the old one, it follows, that at 

 whatever depth they have been planted, they 

 will in a short time rise to the surface; unlike 

 the tulip, and the bulbous iris, whose new bulbs 

 being formed under the old ones, soon sink the 

 plants, unless growing on a hard subsoil. Crocus 

 bulbs should be taken up every third year after 

 the leaves decay, dried in the shade, parted, and 

 replanted three inches deep, and not later than 

 Michaelmas. The longer they are kept out of 

 the ground after this period, they become weaker 

 and are later of flowering. In this way, and by 

 preserving them in an ice house, they may be 



