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A HISTORY OF THE SPECIES OF CROCUS. 



C. c. tun. vaginaceis duabus persistentibus prope basim affixis lsevibus mol- 

 libus inferne demum parallelo-laceris, foliacea exteriore laevi circa vel 

 infra medium c. affixa, spatha acuta bracteam subsequante, genuine pal- 

 lido cum scapi parte exserta aut fere exserta, tubo albo j unc. — ultra, 

 2 unc. libero, limbo unciali vel ultra biunciali albo vel potius colore 

 florem lactis simulante, laciniis saepe ad basim raro tota longitudine pur- 

 pura extus tristriatis fauce intus aurantiaca ad petalorum basim pubes- 

 centibus, filamentis ori tubi insertis luteis pubescentibus { unc. longis, 

 antheris circiter § unc. albis stigmata tenuiter et profunda multifida recta 

 plus minus saturate croceo-coccinea non vel raro aequantibus, foliis 4-8 

 angustis lsevibus flores autumnales serotinos paullu antecedentibus, flo- 

 ribus 1-5 tribus interdum subsimultaneis, capsula parva, seminibus 

 parvis pyriformibus badiis. 



A native of the Greek Islands, the Morea, and Asia Minor. 



This pretty autumnal Crocus, of which the flower is at first 

 cream-coloured, then white, with an orange eye or throat, is 

 remarkable for its pure white anthers. I first received it from 

 Captain Lawrance, at the head of the police in Corfu, when, seeing 

 its flower, and not supposing that Bory de St. Vincent and others 

 who had collected specimens, and M. Gay, who had cultivated, 

 but possibly Jiad not flowered it, could have overlooked its white 

 anthers, a thing not then known to exist in the genus, I looked 

 upon the Corcyrean plant as very distinct ; but having sent to 

 the Morea expressly to clear up the doubts concerning Bory's 

 two species from thence, which were very insufficiently described, 

 I find that the plants received from Modon and Navarino, where 

 Bory de St. Vincent discovered them, as well as those I have 

 procured from Coron, Mount St. Nicolo, Mounts Evan and 

 Ithorne, and the lower parts of Taygetus, agree perfectly with 

 those from Corfu, Sta. Maura, and Zante ; but those from the 

 Morea and Mount Skopo in Zante grow in a redder earth, and 

 are more vigorous. The finest were from Coron, of which one 

 had the limb of the flower above two inches long. I have varie- 

 ties both from Corfu and the Morea with purple lines outside 

 at the base of the segments, and one from another place with 

 three lines on the whole length of each, and there is not a single 

 feature to separate Tappeiner's C. Veneris or Dr. Fischer's 

 C. Caspius from this species. The flowers of the Corfu speci- 

 mens, as far as I have seen, produced in calcareous rubble, are 

 smaller than those which grow in red earth, and the corms of 

 inferior size, and the leaf narrower. In the border at Spoffbrth 

 those from Corfu began to flower at the end of September, 1846, 

 after a hot summer, but it is a late autumnal species. I think 

 it appears partial to the vicinity of the sea, and perhaps it might 

 be natural in the red earth upon chalk with a southern aspect, as 

 at Folkestone, or perhaps even near Tring. Those from Mount 

 Skopo are very florid, producing from the same eye sometimes 

 five flowers, and even three at once. I have seen no other Crocus 



