428 Account and Description of Spring Crocuses, $c. 



beauty of a collection if they are not kept away ; and on this 

 account, a plantation of the roots is best, when situated at 

 a distance from hedges, bushes, or buildings, which may afford 

 shelter to these birds. 



The leaves of all the Crocuses are at first short ; when the 

 bulbs are in blossom they usually appear shorter than the 

 flowers, but they subsequently elongate much, and many grow 

 to a considerable length before they decay. The practice of 

 cutting away the leaves after the roots have done flowering 

 is improper, this should never be done; they will readily 

 separate from the bulbs at the proper season, and the removing 

 them earlier will materially injure the growth of the bulbs in 

 the present, and the blossoms in the next season. The seed 

 vessels rise above the ground, and the seeds ripen much about 

 the same time that the leaves are in a proper state for removal. 

 At that period the seeds may be gathered, and they should 

 be sown immediately. If the raising the seedlings in boxes, 

 as directed by Mr. Haworth, and the subsequent taking up 

 and planting the roots, be thought too troublesome, they may 

 be at once sown in a dry and warm border in which the young 

 plants may remain till they blossom ; and the selection of the 

 sorts to be kept, can thus be made from the original seed bed. 

 Such has been my own practice. 



For the better understanding the descriptions of the flowers 

 of the different species, hereafter to be noticed, it is requisite 

 that the nature or mode of the inflorescence of the Genus 

 should be well understood. This has been in part explained 

 both by Mr. Salisbury and Mr. Bellenden Ker, in the 

 Annals of Botany,* but as these Volumes are now of rare oc- 



* See Annals of Botany, Vol. 1. pages 120 and 221. 



