A HISTORY OF THE SPECIES OF CROCUS. 



259 



smaller plants, with dark-coloured flowers, which' Mr. Sabine 

 called var. lineatus, plumosus, and purpureus, and Haworthi, 

 have the throat white. I doubted at one time their having 

 proceeded from the same stock, for the presence or absence of 

 yellow in the throat seems to be a very constant specific feature 

 in some species of this genus. I have, however, found seedlings 

 raised at Spofforth from the wild Versicolor of Nice vary, with 

 the throat white or pale yellow. The above-named varieties 

 have become quite sterile by long cultivation from offsets, and I 

 have never been able to obtain seed from them, but some of my 

 seedlings from the other race approach to them a little. The 

 wild Versicolor has the leaves more recumbent than the garden 

 varieties. Its flower has a pale tinge of straw-colour on the 

 sepals ; and both it and many of the fine garden varieties bear 

 seed freely. 



Crocus versicolor, like the lagenasflori, likes to have its corm 

 deep in the ground. If its seed is sown in a three-inch pot, 

 plunged in a sand-bed, and left there, by the time the seedlings 

 are two or three years old the bulbs will be found crowded and 

 flattened against the bottom of the pot ; and, if the hole in the 

 pot is large enough to allow their escape, some of them will be 

 found growing in the sand under the pot. 



There is much affinity between C. versicolor, Imperatonius, 

 suaveolens, and insularis. They extend from Nice to Naples, on 

 the lower range of hills, the latter, however, confined to Capraria, 

 Corsica, and Sardinia, and might be united as a group under the 

 name C. sub-apenninus.* Versicolor having the throat white, 

 varying to pale yellow, the fibres of the vaginaceous coats more 

 parallel, and the foliaceous coat more smooth and shining, and 

 the bract always lorate ; Imperatonius, the throat yellow, the 

 fibres of the vag. coats confluent upwards, and those of the 

 foliaceous reticulate, and the bract always tubular ; Suaveolens, 

 the fibres of the vag. coat more reticulate, the bract wanting, 

 and the style always fragrant ; Insularis, the throat invariably 

 white, the fibres reticulate upwards, and the bract usually 

 wanting. 



The only cross-bred I have flowered, or am quite certain of 



* Thus:— 



Crocus sub-apenninus. 



Var. 1. Versicolor ; fauce alba, interdum pallide lutescente, t. vag. fibris 

 parallelis, foliac. exteriore nitida, bractea angusta lorata. 



Var. 2. Imperatonius ; fauce lutea, t. vag. fibris superne confluentibus, 

 fol. exter. reticulata, bractea tubata. 



Var. 3. Suaveolens ; fauce lutea, t. vag. fibris superne reticulatis, bractea 

 obsoleta, stylo odorato. 



Var. 4. Insularis ; fauce alba, t. vag. fibris superne reticulatis, bractea 

 pleruraque obsoleta, stylo inodoro. 



