140 WOOD AND GARDEN 



Crocus of unusually firm and solid substance ; but it is 

 an Amaryllis, and its pure and even yellow colouring 

 is quite unlike that of any of the Crocuses. The 

 numerous upright leaves are thick, deep green, and 

 glossy. It flowers rather shyly in our poor soil, 

 even in well-made beds, doing much better in chalky 

 ground. 



Czar Violets are giving their fine and fragrant 

 flowers on stalks nine inches long. To have them 

 at their best they must be carefully cultivated and 

 liberally enriched. No plants answer better to good 

 treatment, or spoil more quickly by neglect. A miser- 

 able sight is a forgotten violet-bed where they have 

 run together into a tight mat, giving only few and 

 poor flowers. I have seen the owner of such a bed 

 stand over it and blame the plants, when he should 

 have laid the lash on his own shoulders. Violets must 

 be replanted every year. When the last rush of bloom 

 in March is over, the plants are pulled to pieces, and 

 strong single crowns from the outer edges of the 

 clumps, or from the later runners, are replanted in 

 good, well-manured soil, in such a place as will be 

 somewhat shaded from summer sun. There should 

 be eighteen inches between each plant, and as they 

 make their growth, all runners should be cut off until 

 August. They are encouraged by liberal doses of 

 liquid manure from time to time, and watered in case 

 of drought; and the heart of the careful gardener is 

 warmed and gratified when friends, seeing them at 



