A HISTORY OF THE SPECIES OF CROCUS. 



277 



for this plant in vain, late in May, the leaves having disap- 

 peared ; but a few, of which one flowered, as above stated, at 

 Spofforth, were dug up near the base of Mount Delphi in Negro- 

 pont. I have seen a dried specimen from Mount Hymettus, 

 which I referred to the next variety, Mazziaricus, but I did not 

 closely examine it. 



Var. 3. Mazziaricus. Bot. Reg., 1845, Misc. p. 3. Ib. 

 Misc. p. 82. Ib. 1847, 16, f. 5, 6. 



C. c. tun. vagin. Stella ad basim persistente duriore longiore setosa, limbo albo 

 circ. sesquiunciali, antheris aureis stylo gracili superne tenuiter multi- 

 fido pallide coccineo semunciam vel infra brevioribus. Floret Octobri. 

 This variety was first discovered by Signor Mazziari on 

 Phaneromeni, and near Caria, in Sta. Maura, where it appears 

 in October, the flowers being white, with a yellow throat. In 

 the latter site it has been since destroyed by the rapid progress 

 of cultiva'ion, and vines have usurped its place. I found it, 

 however, where it had not been observed before, plentiful on the 

 heights of Megaoros, and pretty abundant on an elevated hollow 

 and flat between the highest point of Megaoros and St. Elias, 

 which is another peak of the same mountain. They are said to 

 be 3000 feet high. From that elevated flat, the rugged path 

 begins to descend very gradually between two ridges of rocky 

 mountain, and partly on the precipitous edge of one of them, 

 towards the southern coast, occurs C. Mazziaricus ; but it does not 

 descend so low as Diamigliano in that direction, where C Ionicus 

 makes its appearance, though almost extirpated by cultivation. The 

 plants of C. Mazziaricus nearest to Diamigliano have the throat 

 deep yellow, and not much streaked ; those which grow higher 

 on the mountain, as well as those from the Cephalonian mountains, 

 are more so. I met with the plant afterwards on Mount Rutin, 

 in Cephalonia, where the tubers were affected very much by a fatal 

 murrain, that caused them to become soft and burst ; and more 

 abundantly in the short turf near the governor's villa, in the 

 forest of Cephalonian firs on Mount CEnos (now called Megaoros 

 by the natives) in close company with an Ornithogalum and a 

 narrow-leaved Oporanthus (O. parvulus, mihi), and again 

 just above the present position of the firs, which was much 

 reduced many years ago by a lawless conflagration. It grew 

 there in company with the Oporanthus and Orchis provincialis. 

 This Crocus has not been found in Corfu or Zante. Its bulbs 

 are sometimes compressed laterally, so as to be almost as flat as 

 a pancake, by growing between stones where the seed has fallen. 



Sp. 30. C. Damascenus. Herbert, Bot. Reg., 1845, 37, f. 

 1. Ib. Misc. p. 1. 

 C. c. tun. vag. membranaceis non reticulatis tenuissimis fugacibus interioris 



