COLCHICUM (MEADOW SAFFRON), 



against all but the strongest grasses, and they rarely fail to establish themselves 

 and form huge clumps in a few years, producing hundreds of flowers from each 

 clump. 



C. autumnale (Meadow Saffron), our British spe- 

 cies, has rich purple flowers, tubular in form, with 

 cup-shaped perianths borne on tubes 5 inches long. 

 There is a white variety and also a dark purple 

 form known as atropurpureum. Planted freely in 

 grass, their effect is exceedingly pretty. Album ple- 

 num is a lovely white double form, with a delicate 

 pink centre, and rubrum plenum is a rosy purple 

 double variety, with paler rose-tinted centre. Both 

 deserve a place among choice plants in the rock gar- 

 den. Though known long ago, they are still scarce, 

 being slow of increase owing to their free-flowering 

 habit. A protecting carpet of dwarf herbage is very 

 necessary for these double forms. 



C. Bivon<e (Bivon's Meadow S.), a native of the 

 Mediterranean region, flowering in late autumn, has 

 pretty star-shaped flowers opening quite flat ; they 

 range in colour from purple-rose to lilac, faintly 

 chequered with a darker colour and average from 

 4 to 6 inches in length and span. The leaves are 

 tapering, slightly glaucous and appear in spring. 

 The plant requires a warm position in the rock gar- 

 den or warm border, and is most effective planted 

 in colonies of twenty plants or more. 



C. Bornmulleri (Bornmuller's Meadow S.), a rare 

 species from Asia Minor, has lovely chalice-shaped 

 flowers 8 inches long and 5 inches across, pale rose 

 or lilac rose when first open but changing to a richer 

 purple with age. The lower half of the flower is 

 white and the free lobes of the petals are spoon- 

 shaped, the leaves appearing in spring. This species 

 is one of the rarest and finest of all, and it should 

 be planted in a good place in the rock garden and 

 deserves every care. 



C. byzantinum (Byzantine Meadow S.) is a Levan- 

 tine species, and its easternmost form (C. cilicicum) 

 is very vigorous, with pale rose-lilac or rose-purple 

 flowers 6 to 8 inches high, the petals strap-shaped 

 and not quite an inch in width. The leaves produced 

 in tufts are very strong, measuring 6 inches in width 

 by a foot in length. The bulbs are also massive and, 

 when fully developed, larger than a man's fist. The 

 plants vary much, those from the Cilicican Taurus 

 are the best forms, being mainly rose-coloured and 

 very large. It is a little too strong for the rock gar- 

 den, but would prove useful for borders and natu- 

 ralizing near water, where its bold foliage would be 

 in harmony with waterside vegetation. 



C. crociflorum (Crocus-bloomed Meadow S.) is 

 a form of the variable montanum but a distinct gar- 

 den plant, flowering with its slender leaf-growth in 

 spring. It bears a tuft of white flowers 4 inches 



high, the petals of which are striped with purple^or 

 rose externally. It flowers very freely and is one of 

 the best spring-flowering kinds for the rock garden 

 and should be grown in little colonies of twenty to 

 fifty plants rather than in clumps of two or three. 

 Several other Colchicums bear this name, forms of 

 the Lebanon and common kinds in particular, but the 

 purple stripe on the exterior of its petals identifies it. 



C. Decaisnei (Decaisne's Meadow S.) is an ex- 

 ceedingly pretty kind from Palestine and Syria. It 

 bears rose-pink, self-coloured flowers, darker in 

 shade at the base, in shape like a Dutch Crocus, but 

 scarcely so large. It flowers during winter and early 

 spring, and the tapering, erect leaves of lustrous 

 green appear shortly afterwards. This species is one 

 of the choicest Colchicums for the rock garden, and, 

 like crociflorum, should be planted in colonies for 

 better effect. 



C. Haussknechtii is a Persian species, the flowers 

 of which are long-tubed, white or flesh-tinted, 

 deepening to a pale purple with age ; the leaves as 

 in the native kind, but larger. A beautiful plant and 

 a great rarity; a few specimens only are known. 



C. Itetum, a native of Asia Minor, has long-tubed, 

 chalice-shaped, self-coloured flowers of a pale rose- 

 lilac colour, 8 inches or more long, flowering late 

 in autumn. Flowering among its fellows in the 

 rock garden at Kew, its soft colour and bold out- 

 line are very attractive. It is good alike for the rock 

 garden or for borders, but should be given plenty 

 of room. 



C. libanoticum (Lebanon Meadow S.) is a small 

 spring flowering kind from the Cilicican Taurus and 

 the mountains of Northern Palestine. Its flowers 

 of pale rose colour appear in quantity with the leaves 

 in February ; they average 3 inches in diameter and 

 have lance-shaped petals, which expand fully. It is 

 a charming plant to grow in colonies in the rock 

 garden in dry, warm places. This species scarcely 

 differs, save in its larger flowers and stronger foliage, 

 from the Mountain Meadow Saffron, of which it 

 may be a far-eastern form. 



C. montanum (Mountain Meadow S.). — A pretty 

 rock garden plant widely distributed throughout 

 South Europe and Asia Minor. Its forms are legion, 

 they have star-shaped flowers less than 3 inches in 

 diameter produced in quantity with the leaves and 

 ranging in colour from white through all shades of 

 pink, rose, and lilac to purple, each colour form being 

 confined to a certain district or mountain. All the 

 spring-flowering Colchicums which flower with their 

 leaves fully developed are forms of C. montanum. It 



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