936 



PB ACTIO AL GUIDE TO GARDEN PLANTS 



CEOCUS 



larger ones when lifted. The smaller 

 ones should be grown by themselves the 

 first season until they have become good 

 flowering bulbs. Seeds may also be sown 

 in spring on hotbeds, the seedhngs being 

 pricked out and grown on in gentle heat 

 until June. They may then be planted 

 out in a specially prepared patch or grovsm 

 on in pots until the following season. 

 Many of them will flower the second 

 year, and nearly all the third. 



Besides the above there are several 

 other species of Tigridda, but not hardy 

 enough for the outdoor garden. The 

 plants described have flowers of excep- 

 tional beauty and briUiance, and it is 

 rather astonishing that they are not more 

 generally grown. True, the individual 

 flowers are not of long duration : they 

 open in the morn and close in the after- 

 noon for ever, but each day they are 

 replaced by fresh ones ; when grown in 

 suitable situations, the flowering period 

 may extend firom July into August and 

 even September. 



T. Pavonia (Ferraria Pavonia ; F. 

 Tigridia). — Peacock Tiger Flower. — A 

 handsome shoviry Mexican plant with 

 forked leafy stems 1-2 ft. high, and lance- 

 shaped, pointed, plaited leaves 12-18 in. 

 long, sheathing at the base. Flowers in 

 summer, about 6 in. across, the outer seg- 

 ments of the perianth being broadly ovate, 

 about 3 in. long, violet at the base, with 

 zones of yellow blotched with purple and 

 of a briUiant scarlet at the tip ; the cupped 

 inner segments are much smaller, and 

 yellow blotched with purple. There are 

 now many charmuig varieties of the Pea- 

 cock Tiger Flower grown, the best being 

 grandiflora, with larger and more brilliant 

 flowers than the type, and its forms alba, 

 with a pearl-white ground, conchiflora 

 recognised by its yellow flowers blotched 

 and ' tigered ' with purple ; alba is a superb 

 form with pure white and purple-spotted 

 flowers ; apeciosa is somewhat iflie grandi- 

 flora ; and Wheeleri has very large flowers 

 of a brilliant red. 



Culture do. as above. 



T. Pringlei. — A native of S. Mexico 

 having small bulbs with spindle-shaped 

 roots and slender stems 1-2 ft. high, with 

 2-3 winged plaited leaves. The shallow 

 cup-like flowers are borne singly on the 

 stems in July and August, and are of a 

 brilliant scarlet blotched with crimson. 



Culture df:r. as above. 



FERRARIA. — A genus of interesting 

 dwarf plants with tunioated bulbs or 

 corms, sword-like leaves and several 

 flowers in a spathe. The perianth is cup- 

 shaped with 6 spreading lance-shaped or 

 oblong segments often contracted at the 

 base, and with wavy crisped edges. The 

 3 filaments are united in a, tube, and the 

 3 stigmas surmounting the linear ovary 

 are petal-like and fringed. 



F. undulata. — ^A distinct S. African 

 plant with branching flower-stems and 

 equitant sword-like wavy leaves, the 

 outer ones being about tvnce as broad as 

 the inner ones. The peculiar greenish- 

 brown or dull plum-coloured flowers 

 with wavy segments, spotted with purple 

 are produced in March and April. 



Culture and Propagation. — The above 

 is the only species grown out of doors 

 in warm sunny positions in light well- 

 drained soil. The bulbs should be lifted 

 in autumn like the Tigridias, and the 

 plants may be increased like them by 

 means of bulblets or offsets, and also by 

 seeds if any are ripened. 



CROCUS. — A genus of well-known 

 popular plants with fleshy corms having 

 sheathing fibrous coats and narrow slen- 

 der linear channelled radical leaves re- 

 curved at the margins, and appearing at 

 the same time as the flowers or after 

 them. Flowers soUtary with a regular 

 funnel-shaped perianth, composed of 6 

 equal segments. Stamens with short free 

 filaments. Ovary oblong, 3-celled ; stig- 

 mas more or less cleft or fringed. 



About 70 species of Crocuses have 

 been described, and most of them are in 

 cultivation. Many, however, are only to 

 be met with in botanic gardens, and are 

 either too delicate or too rare to be gene- 

 rally cultivated out of doors in the colder 

 parts of the kingdom. 



Crocuses are peculiar inasmuch as 

 they do not all flower at the same period 

 of the year. Some produce their blossoms 

 in the autumn from the end of August 

 to November, while others do not blos- 

 som until about February and continue 

 to the end of March or begiiming of April. 

 For this reason gardeners have roughly 

 classified Crocuses into two groups 

 according to their period of flowering, as 

 follows : — 



1. Spring-flowering Crocuses. — Ap- 

 pearing at the dullest and bleakest time 

 of the year Spring Crocuses are not un- 



