250 



A HISTORY OF THE SPECIES OF CROCUS. 



The whole race appear to have a predilection for calcareous 

 hills, Vermis preferring an elevation of from 5000 feet on the 

 Alps to above 6000 in Calabria ; others, like Ionicus, preferring 

 the lower part of stony hills near the sea. Lagenaeflorus, how- 

 ever, was found by Sibthorp in sandy soil upon clay in the Eastern 

 Greek islands ; and all its numerous varieties certainly prefer 

 such a situation when cultivated, and their bulbs grow naturally 

 and best five inches or more below the surface. A few Italian 

 Croci — that is to say, C. suaveolens and the Italian varieties of 

 C. annulatus — are said to be found on tufa ; but I have not suffi- 

 cient geological knowledge to state whether there is any calca- 

 reous matter in that tufa, or whether it is underlaid by calcareous 

 rocks which are certainly in the vicinity. The whole of the 

 genus are hill plants, having no disposition to establish them- 

 selves on alluvial plains, and seeming to avoid equally the 

 igneous rocks ; both of which I suppose tend to overpower them 

 with a rival vegetation which does not flourish so vigorously on 

 the calcareous hills ; for they necessarily require a position either 

 stony and naked, or where the grass, from the ungenial nature of 

 the soil or climate, or the partial shade of trees, is not vigorous 

 in the spring. I saw one weak plant of Crocus Vernus, one of 

 Hepatica, and one still weaker of a Lilium (Martagon, I suppose) 

 near a rill that was dashing down the igneous rocks at Chia- 

 venna, but they did not flower, and were evidently mourning by 

 the waters of Chiavenna, because the seed from which they 

 sprang had been exiled from the calcareous heights of the 

 Splugen. The genus belongs to the Mediterranean formation, 

 beginning westward on the coast of Portugal, where C. Clusianus 

 grows near Lisbon, and Cintra and the hills near Tangiers, 

 where C. Salzmannianus is found in Africa, the southern limits 

 extending by Malta, Crete, and Cyprus, to the mountains near 

 Damascus, the northern limit being the Aquitanian side of the 

 Pyrenees, Cevennes, and the Alps, following the hills on the 

 south side of the Danube to Trajan's bridge. Crossing thence to 

 the Carpathian ridge and South Podolia, it passes to the steppes 

 of Odessa and Caucasus up to the Caspian, but no further, being 

 stopped northwards by the alluvial plains of Poland and the 

 Ukraine, and eastward by the salt barrens and marshes of the 

 Volga. It follows the calcareous heights of Mount Taurus and 

 Bithynian Olympus to Angora, Boli, Tifflis, Elizabethpol, and 

 Lenkeran on the Caspian ; but, as far as I can learn, no Crocus 

 enters Suleimania, Kurdistan, Mesopotamia, Persia, Daghistan, 

 or Shirvan, or appears on Mount Elburg or Mount Ararat, being 

 excluded by the igneous rocks, or rather, I conclude, by the 

 rival vegetation of those mountains which can bear the accidents 

 of climate on such a substratum well enough to overpower the 



