BULBOUS PLANTS. 



103 



districts to be planted in a warm border at the foot of 

 a south, wall. The bulbs should be potted or planted 

 in early spring-, in rich loamy soil. In the case of 

 pot culture the bulbs should not be watered until 

 the foliage appears, but when in active growth water 

 may be given liberally, and the plants may be placed 

 on a light shelf in a green-house or frame. Its 

 flowers appear about June, and after the foliage has 

 ripened and decayed the bulbs may be taken out of 

 the soil, and kept in dry mould or sand till planting- 

 time in spring — February or March. 



Chlorogalum pomeridianum (Soap Plant). 

 — This Californian plant cannot be called showy, but 

 as it is distinct in appearance, some may like to grow 

 it. It has a large bulb, long narrow leaves, and 

 produces a spreading branching flower-stem, bear- 

 ing numerous white flowers in summer. It is 

 hardy, and thrives in an ordinary border, and is 

 not worth much attention. It is nearly allied to 

 Camassia, and the white C. Leichtlinii ; is also called 

 Chlorogalum Leichtlinii. 



Choretis glauca. — This is an old, and at one 

 time was a common, plant in hot-houses. It ia a 

 near ally of Pancratium and Hymenocallis, in which 

 latter genus it is included by botanists. Its large 

 black- coated bulb bears several broad and long leaves 

 of a glaucous-green tint, hence its name. The flowers 

 are produced in terminal umbel-like clusters. Each 

 has a long slender tube, narrow sepals, and a large 

 cup-like crown of transparent whiteness, spotted in 

 the middle with green. It has no particular flowering 

 season, but blooms generally from early summer till 

 autumn. It requires the same treatment as such 

 evergreen bulbs as Hymenocallis and Pancratium, 

 directions for which will be given hereafter. 



Coburghia. — Though not generally cultivated 

 in this country, a few of the Coburghias, which 

 are all South American bulbs, are really very hand- 

 some, and well deserve the attention of cultivators. 

 A good many species are known to botanists, but 

 only a few have been introduced. The best known 

 is C. incamata, which has long been a favourite 

 green-house plant. It has large bulbs, which send 

 up stout flower - stems terminated by clusters of 

 four or five very beautiful coral-tinted and scarlet 

 flowers, which are tubular and gracefully droop. 

 Another handsome species is C. trichroma. the 

 flowers of which are similar to the foregoing but 

 coloured with green, yellow, and salmon tints. C. 

 fulva, a less showy kind, is also cultivated. The 

 Coburghias, being deciduous, may be kept in dry 

 sand or mould during winter, and potted in early 

 spring in rich loamy soil, as they are gross feeders 



when in active growth. A warm and moist atmo- 

 sphere is best for the bulbs when first started, 

 but after tbe leaves are fully developed a drier 

 treatment must be given, together with as much 

 sunlight as possible, in order to thoroughly ripen 

 the bulbs. They flower at the end of summer, 

 after which the bulbs have done their work for 

 the season, and may then be rested until spring by 

 withholding water. 



Colchicum (Meadow Saffron). — In the shorten- 

 ing days of autumn, when the brightness of the 

 summer flowers is on the wane, the Meadow Saffron 

 flowers peep above the ground, and are therefore 

 most welcome at that season, although they lack the 

 interest that spring-flowering bulbs awaken. The 

 Meadow Saffrons are indeed very old-fashioned plants, 

 for they have been cultivated from the earliest 

 times, they were familiar to such early writers on 

 garden plants as Parkinson, who admirably figures 

 some of them in his quaint book, and from that time 

 to this they have always been favourites in English 

 gardens. 



The Colchicums when in flower so much resemble 

 the Crocuses that to many they are indistinguish- 

 able, though they are abundantly distinct in foliage, 

 which in the Colchicum is long and generally broad, 

 while in all the Crocuses it is grass-like. With but 

 few exceptions the flowers appear unaccompanied by 

 leaves, these having died away during the previous 

 summer, not to reappear before the early spring, 

 when they are accompanied by the seed-pod, which 

 during winter has been maturing itself beneath the 

 surface. The bulbs of the Colchicum are, moreover, 

 very different from those of the Crocus, being more 

 like those of Tulips. The prevalent colour of Col- 

 chicum flowers is rose-purple, the exception being 

 in C. luteum, a Himalayan species with small yellow 

 flowers, and which is scarcely worth cultivation. 



There are a good many species of Colchicum in 

 gardens, but several of them bear such a close re- 

 semblance to each other when in flower that they 

 are well regarded by the gardener as identical. 



C. autumnale, often called the Autumn Crocus, is 

 by far the commonest of the Meadow Saffrons, and 

 on account of its having been cultivated in some 

 parts of the country for the manufacture of a drug 

 from its roots, it has become so plentiful that it is 

 looked upon as a native plant. It flowers about 

 September, unaccompanied by leaves, but being pro- 

 duced in clusters of several together, the flowers are 

 showy. In the typical kind they are pale mauve - 

 purple, but there are several varieties, particularly 

 with double flowers, that vary in tint. Thus, there 

 is a double white, album plenum ; roseum, of a more 

 rosy hue than the original; pallidum, very pale pink; 



