"no 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



may be grown well in any short poor turf, and is 

 well suited for this use, its period of growth being 

 shorter than in any other Colchicum. 



C. Parkinsoni (Parkinson's Meadow S.), a native 

 of Greece and the countries round, is a very distinct 

 species of one of the few plants that flower freely 

 and naturally during mid-winter. Its leaves are 

 glaucous, prostrate, undulating and margined with 

 white ; the flowers are star-shaped, scarcely raised 

 above the ground level, and their petals are lanceo- 

 late, pale purple, distinctly and prettily chequered 

 with rich vinous purple. The flowers remain a long 

 time in good condition, but a few days' sunshine 

 robs them of their richly chequered tracery. It is 

 an old-time garden plant, perhaps better known as 

 C. tessellatum, a synonym of C. variegatum also. The 

 star-shaped chequered Colchicums are usually natives 

 of dry districts and require a warm situation in the 

 rock garden. 



C. Sibthorpi (Sibthorp's Meadow S.), a fine species 

 recently introduced from Greece, has bold, chalice- 

 shaped flowers 7 to 8 inches long, coloured a bright 

 rosy purple, yellowish within, and with both sur- 

 faces irregularly chequered deep rose. The flowers 

 expand fully, but owing to the breadth of petal 

 never become star-like in outline as in the other 

 chequered species. It is very free flowering. The 

 leaves are glaucous, broad and flat. The plant 

 grows well in the rock garden or warm border, and 

 when in quantity should prove a useful species for 

 the wild garden. 



C, speciosum (showy Meadow Saffron) is a vari- 

 able but exceptionally fine species from Asia Minor. 

 It is vigorous, free flowering, and easy to establish ; 

 equally as well adapted for choice border and rock 

 garden planting as for naturalising, attaining its 

 fullest size in a rich moist soil fully exposed to the 

 sun. The flowers are chalice-shaped, self-coloured, 



varying from rose to purple, invariably paler in 

 the lower half, and the petals being broad and stout 

 give the flowers a very regular and finished look, 

 such as one sees in a perfect border Tulip. It is the 

 best and finest of Colchicums available in quantity, 

 and should be widely planted. 



C. album, a pure white variety of garden origin, 

 of which a fine clump is growing in the gardens at 

 Dalhousie Castle, Midlothian, is a great rarity and 

 a valuable plant, of which a few examples only are 

 known. 



C. Tenorei (Tenore's Meadow S.). — A small 

 flowered species, of rosy-purple tint, 4 to 6 inches 

 high, the flowers of which are star-shaped and pro- 

 duced in early winter ; it requires a dry warm spot 

 under a projecting ledge of stone, as its flowers ap- 

 pear at a season when they have few chances of full 

 development. It should be planted in colonies of a 

 score or so to be very effective, as the plant does not 

 increase rapidly. 



C. variegatum closely resembles Parkinson's kind 

 in its flowers, but the colour is rosy, chequered a 

 richer rose, and they appear in autumn ; the leaves 

 are smaller, deep green in colour, and not prostrate. 

 It is good alike for planting on the rock-garden and 

 for naturalising in grass, thriving in sunny places. 



The bulbs and seeds of Colchicums contain a 

 narcotico-acrid poison, and children should be cau- 

 tioned not to taste the fruits. No harm can accrue 

 from handling the plants with ordinary care. Do- 

 mestic animals instinctively avoid them. 



Geo. B. Mallett. 



[Note. — The plant named C. giganteum in our 

 drawing has lately come into cultivation under this 

 name in several nurseries, and is a fine large kind, 

 but what affinity it has to others previously known 

 we cannot at present tell. — Editor.] 



The Farm in the Landscape. — Will treat- 

 ment with a view to profit discard, of necessity, all 

 considerations of tasteful arrangement ? I think 

 not, and for reasons among which I may adduce the 

 following : Judicious location of a farm-steading, 

 with a view to profit simply, will be always near the 

 centre of the lands farmed. The ricks, the chimney, 

 the barn-roofs, the dove-cots form a charming nu- 

 cleus for any stretch of fields. If there be a stream 

 whose power for mechanical purposes can be made 

 available, economy dictates the placing of the farm 

 buildings near to its banks : taste does the same. If 

 such slope has its rocky fastness, incapable of tillage, 

 and of little value for pasture, economy will suggest 

 that it be allowed to develop its own growth of forest : 

 a just landscape taste will suggest the same. If there 

 be a broad stretch of meadow or of marsh land, 



subject to occasional overflow, or by the necessity 

 of its position not capable of thorough drainage, 

 good farming will demand that it be kept in grass : 

 good landscape gardening will do the same. Again, 

 rolling hillsides, which are not readily subject to any 

 course of tillage, will be kept in pasture, and will 

 have their little modicum of shade. The good 

 farmer will be desirous of establishing this shade 

 around the brooklet or the spring which waters his 

 herd, or as a sheltering belt to the northward and 

 westward of his lands : the landscape gardener 

 cannot surely object to this. Declivities are to be 

 overcome by the easiest practicable grades, and the 

 curves which will insure this in most landscapes 

 are those which are justified at a glance by the eco- 

 nomic eye, as well as by the eye of taste. — D. G. 

 Mitchell. 



