By Joseph Sabine, Esq. 



137 



stripes than the first. The fourth is " The cloth of Silver 

 Crocus " which is described as a pale yellowish white, more 

 white than yellow, with pale purple-blue on the tube and 

 bottom of the flower, and having the outer petals striped. 

 Nothing, I believe, resembling this description has been 

 seen, or heard of by cultivators in modern times. If it exists 

 any where in obscurity, its discovery would be most welcome. 

 It possibly would prove a distinct species. I must necessa- 

 rily refer my first variety to the second of Parkinson's kinds ; 

 but Miller, in the first Edition of his Dictionary, quotes 

 Parkinson's first, as the sort then (1731) cultivated. Miller, 

 in the same Edition of his Dictionary, mentions only the first 

 plant of Parkinson's above referred to ; but gives besides, 

 on the authority of Clusius, " The double cloth of Gold 

 Crocus." In the seventh Edition of the Dictionary, he con- 

 siders this as arising from some arrangement of the petals of 

 the single flower ; but I am satisfied that the double flowering 

 bulb has existed. It is one of the kinds mentioned by Bauhin, 

 page 66, in his Pinax. 



The Cloth of Gold Crocus is given * in the seventh Edition 

 of Miller's Dictionary; the sort there described is said to 

 have three stripes on the petals, and cannot consequently be 

 applied to either of the varieties above given, but must be 

 considered as referable to Parkinson's first kind, which is at 

 present a desideratum in our gardens. It is only referred to by 

 Willdenow in his Species Plantarum/f as belonging to 

 Crocus vernus. Miller says it is commonly called the Bishop's 



* Crocus (vernus) spatha bivalvi radicali, floribus sessilibus. 

 f Willdenow Sp. Plant, vol. i. page 195. 



