288 



A HISTORY OF THE SPECIES OF CROCUS. 



is found in Dalmatia, intermixed, however, with the white va- 

 riety, similar to var. 5. 



Var. 5. Of a pure white (though in a few specimens I have 

 seen the outside tinged with purple), grows near Opschina, the 

 well-known hill-station on the Austrian side of Trieste. For 

 its possession I am indebted to Signor Tomasini. 



Var. 6 was separated by Professor Tenore as a species under 

 the name Pusillus. It does not appear to me advisable to con- 

 sider the plants which I have united under the general name 

 Annulatus as other than strong local varieties of one species, 

 marked by very decisive characters. The smallest with the 

 clearest white ground is found at St. Rocco, near Naples. The 

 larger variety, figured in Bot. Mag. erroneously as Decandolle's C. 

 minimus, and naturalized in Barton Park, near Bury St. Edmund's, 

 in company with lagenaeflorus aureus, is found near Pisa, and 

 Sabine's argenteus is a seminal variety, whiter, but scarcely worth 

 distinguishing, much like those which are found near Lucca, 

 where Mr. Cartwright discovered one pure white, except a straw- 

 coloured tinge on the outside of its unstreaked sepals. A variety 

 found at Ossolone, in the Neapolitan territory, is very superior 

 to all others in Italy, having larger flowers and a beautiful bluish 

 ground. I have also smaller varieties from Naples with the 

 blue tint. C. lineatus of Jan is the variety of pusillus which 

 grows near Parma, and is scarcely, if at all, separable from Sa- 

 bine's argenteus. Parkinson's plant, which Sabine called C. 

 biflorus v. Parkinsoni, is in fact the same thing. It is the largest 

 of the Italian pusilli, which have all 3-streaked sepals. 



Estriatus, found near Florence, is a very peculiar plant, hav- 

 ing bay seeds, not whitish, like the pusilli, a differently shaped 

 bract, and a lilac-coloured flower, the sepals being of unstreaked 

 straw-colour on the outside. I believe it will be found to come 

 true from seed in cultivation. 



C. annulatus, with vernal flowers, is the only membranaceous 

 crocus which has the scape naked and the stigma truncate and 

 fragrant. The rest have multifid stigmas and autumnal flowers. 



Sp. 38. C. a'erius. 



C. Sibthorpianus. JBot. Reg., 1845, Misc.ip. 5, not 

 1843, p. 28. 



C. cormo minimo, tun. omnibus membranaceis lcevibus pallide brunneo- 

 badiis demum ad basim parallelo-laceris, foliacea exteriore (ni fallor) 

 prope basim, proxima parum altius affixa, foliis 2-4 vel ultra angustis, 

 spatba hyalina bractea sequali inferne tubata, germine brevi albicante, 

 tubo extus saturate violaceo, limbo (in sicco) albo intus violascente \ 

 unc. longo, filamentis \, antheris (aureis ? I semuncialibus stigmata 

 paucifida irregularia fimbriate dilatata aurantiaca fere aequantibus. 

 Variat limbo saturate violaceo (in sicco) inferne luteo. 



