io8 FLORA AND SYLVA, 



COLCHICUM (MEADOW SAFFRON) * 



These are hardy bulbous plants, and are widely distributed throughout the 

 mountainous regions of Europe and Asia Minor. They range in stature from 

 tiny Alpine plants a few inches high, with a large number of small flowers 

 nestling among their foliage, to broad-leaved, stately plants, with tufts of massive 

 lilac, rose, or purple flowers, shaped like a giant Crocus. Many of these are 

 elegantly chequered, while the colours of the others are softly blended. One 

 only, C. luteum, has pale yellow flowers somewhat like Sternbergia macrantha 

 in outline ; it flowers with its leaf growth in spring. Upwards of a hundred 

 species have received distinct names ; of these about twenty may be regarded as 

 distinct, and good garden plants, the others being mainly geographical forms 

 or kinds of little garden worth. Individual plants of a given species vary some- 

 what in colour and in other ways, both under cultivation and in a wild state ; 

 and to this may be owing some part of the synonyms bestowed on these plants. 

 The flowering season rnges from early autumn to spring, but some, and these 

 the finest kinds, flower in autumn, their leaves and seed vessels appearing early 

 in the new year ; others flower in winter, their leaves and seeds appearing in 

 spring, whilst a few dwarf species flower in spring, their foliage appearing at 

 the same season. 



Their cultivation gives very little trouble ; they require to be planted in 

 August at the latest, if flowers in good condition are desired at that season, and 

 they may be well grown in any good garden soil, that is, fairly rich and moist. 

 They enjoy a warm, open exposure, so that the bulbs may ripen well in summer 

 just before the flowering period. The rarer species grow well and appear to 

 advantage in the front of choice herbaceous plant borders, and are effective on 

 the flat slopes and in the deeper soil of the rock garden, the earth around them 

 covered with a carpet of small shallow-rooting rock plants, such as the smaller 

 Rockfoils, Stonecrops, and Speedwells. Such plants will give to the brittle stem- 

 like tubes of the Colchicums the needful support, and will protect them from 

 injury by encircling the bulbs with their slender roots, preserve the flowers 

 from mud splashes during heavy autumnal rains, and give the background of 

 green, without which no flower appears quite at its best. 



The common species, C. autumnale and its varieties, and other species which 

 are obtainable in quantity without great expense, are well adapted for naturaliz- 

 ing in grass and in the approaches to woodland, and in broad belts of wild 

 garden. Good effects may also be got by using them freely to clothe the higher 

 banks of streams and ponds. They succeed and increase rapidly in grass land 

 if the site is well drained and the soil of good tilth. They can hold their own 



* With coloured plate from drawing by H, Q, Moon in Barr's Nursery at Long Ditton. 



