BULBOUS PLOTTERS. 



25 



spread by the hand of Mature herself. In parterres, the 

 species are better kept separate ; that is, at least in 

 separate patches or rows, because they do not all flower 

 exactly at the same time. Thus, the bright yellow 

 blooms before the white and the purple : and if their 

 combined effect is counted upon, disappointment will 

 mostly ensue. Crocuses, in general, like a light, moist 

 soil. Plant them in September, at the depth of from 

 three to four inches, and take them up for division and 

 transplantation every fourth summer at longest, after 

 the leaves are completely withered. The reason is, not 

 only that by multiplication of -offsets they become too 

 crowded to bloom well, but that every year new corms 

 (as these solid bulbs are called) are formed above the 

 old ones, and in course of time rise to the very surface 

 of the ground, the inconvenience of which in a garden is 

 obvious. In a state of nature it is otherwise. In the 

 Alps, wild crocuses are abundant in swampy hollows 

 into < which the brooklets, caused by the melting snows, 

 bring with them a small but perceptible deposit of mud. 

 This thin layer is, of course, annually repeated, and a 

 stationary bulb would in a few years be buried beyond 

 the power of vegetation. It is, perhaps, not too much 

 an indulgence of fancy to believe that the upward pro- 

 gress of the corms is an adaptation designed to enable 

 them to keep pace with the gradual elevation of the soil 

 in which they are rooted. Although several species seed 

 freely, the usual mode of propagation is by offsets. 

 After flowering, be careful to leave the foliage perfectly 

 uninjured until the full period of its natural decay. To 

 avoid the inevitable incumbrance of these leaves in small 

 gardens, it is not a bad plan to form beds or baskets of 

 crocuses in plunged pots, which may be removed to give 

 place to other flowers. The same mode of shifting and 

 succession is applicable to many other bulbs, and only 

 requires a little industry to carry out. 



Crown Imperial — F.ritillaria Imperialis. — A coarse, 

 though bold and showy flower, welcome in April for its 

 erect stem, a yard or more high, and the decided charac- 



