150 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 
refreshment near home, and thus be enabled without risk 
to “improve the shining hour.” 
The spring-flowering crocuses are as well known in a 
general way as any flowers of the garden. But those whose 
knowledge of horticulture is more than skin-deep can tell 
us of crocuses that flower in almost every month of the 
year. For the present purpose, however, we may divide 
them into two classes—those that flower in autumn and 
those that flower in spring. The naturalist may prove 
to us that the season in which a plant produces its flowers 
is determined by circumstances acting through many long 
years; but the poet has a perfect right to take another 
view of it as having no relation to heredity, climatical in- 
fluence, or the origin of species. Good Gilbert White found 
in the crocus a sermon so plainly written that he who runs 
may read it for himself, and it might be interwoven with 
the pregnant text, “ My times are in thy hand.” 
Three species of crocus claim priority of attention in 
this brief essay. The common yellow crocus of gardens 
is the Crocus duteus of the botanist. The native country 
of this is at present unknown, but it probably is “at 
home” somewhere on the shores of the Mediterranean. 
The finest of the yellow crocuses is known to traders in 
bulbs as the “Cloth of Gold ;” this is the Crocus susiana 
of the botanist, native of the “ Levant,” which may mean 
anywhere in Asia Minor. The blue, white, and striped 
crocuses are the product of the spring crocus, Crocus 
vernus of the botanist, native of the Alps and Apennines. 
The following less known species are worthy of especial 
attention by such as find amusement in collecting choice 
hardy flowers. Crocus Jmperati, flowering in spring, 
creamy white with purple stripes, a very fine sweet-scented 
