83G 



THE IRIS FAMILY. 



V. CROCUS. CKOCUS. 



Bootstock bulbous, the outer coating fibrous, and more or less netted, 

 or rarely remaining membranous. Leaves radical, narrow-linear. 

 Flowers almost sessile among the leaves, with a very long tube, and a 

 campanulate limb of 6 nearly equal segments. Stigmas dilated and 

 coloured at the top, and often cut or fringed, but not petal-like. Cap- 

 sule buried among the leaves. 



A small south European and west Asiatic genus, a few species ex- 

 tending into central Europe, and several, long since cultivated for or- 

 nament, or for saffron collected from their stigmas, have established 

 themselves in a few localities still further north. 



Flowers in spring, with the leaves. Stigmas wedge-shaped, and 



slightly jagged . • 1. Spring C. 



Flowers in autumn, without leaves. Stigmas cut into a many- 



lobed fringe 2. Naked C. 



1. Spring Crocus. Crocus vermis, Willd. (Fig. 1008.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 344.) 



Leaves enclosed at the base in a tube 

 of 2 or 3 thin, scarious, sheathing scales. 

 Flowers solitary within the leaves, of a 

 bluish-purple ; the ovary sessile on the 

 bulb, the long tube enclosed at the base 

 in a sheath similar to that of the leaves. 

 Stigmas of a rich-orange, dilated at the 

 top, and slightly jagged, but not deeply 

 fringed. 



In meadows, in the hilly districts oi 

 central and southern Europe, not fur- 

 ther north than central France. In Bri- 

 tain, apparently naturalized in the mea- 

 dows about Nottingham, and other parts 

 of central England, and in some parts of 

 Ireland. Fl. early spring. 

 Fig. 1008. 



2. Naked Crocus. Crocus nudiflorus, Sm. (Fig. 1009.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 491.) 



Flowers rather larger than in the spring C, appearing after the 

 leaves of the year have withered, and before those of the following year 



