FRITILLARY. 99 



enclosed as in a case by the withered and wrinkled bulb of 

 the preceding year. It is a particularly easy plant to 

 grow in one's own garden, only we must warn all who 

 would attempt it that bulbs have many enemies, and it is 

 very possible that mice or some other small foes may 

 prepare a disappointment. The stalk of the fritillary is 

 about a foot in height, upright, often purplish in colour, 

 and bearing some three or four leaves arranged in an 

 alternate manner along it, and terminating in a flower. 

 The leaves partly embrace the stem, and are, as our 

 illustration shows, long and slender. The single flower 

 that each stem bears is of a graceful bell form, pendulous, 

 composed of six equal segments, and at the base of each 

 will be found inside a hollow space or nectary : this on the 

 outside gives the curious raised and angular look that we 

 see on the flower near its attachment to the stem. The 

 flower is subject to a very considerable variation in colour, 

 but the one we have figured is a very fairly typical 

 specimen. The curious square chequerings will at once be 

 noticed. Wherever it is met with one may expect to find 

 one or two specimens having white flowers, as this is a par- 

 ticularly common form of variation. More rarely the 

 characteristic chequering is replaced by purplish blotches 

 on a yellowish green ground ; it has a livid and uncanny 

 effect. We have ourselves seen both these variations, but 

 the typical form is the most quaintly pleasing. 



The old herbals often have very elaborate and allegorical 

 woodcuts as frontispieces, and that of the " Rariorum 

 Plantarum Historia " of Clusius, now before us as we write, 

 is no exception. The book was published at Antwerp in 

 the year 1601. We have Adam on one side, in the 

 simplicity of costume of Eden's earliest days, and on the 



