450 Account and Description of Spring Crocuses, fyc. 



petals, extend up them, and form the middle one of a set 

 of blue-feathered lines ; this middle one is the longest, and 

 reaches two-thirds .up the petals; the two next are half as 

 long, and smaller ; the two outer ones are very faint. The 

 petals are longer than those of the preceding, and though of 

 the same colour, have not quite the same thickness of sub- 

 stance ; the inner petals are broader. The stigmas are as in 

 the other variety, shorter than the anthers, which are yellow 

 and broad. It produces plenty of seed. The roots are like 

 those of the other kind. A good figure of this variety was 

 published by Dr. Sims in 1825 in the Botanical Magazine, 

 Tab. 2655, under the name given to it by Mr. Haworth and 

 Mr. Salisbury. 



CLASS II. 



Spring Crocuses with various coloured Flowers (not 

 yellow) having the mouths of the flower tubes 

 without hairs. 



To this division belong the plants ranged under the two 

 older species of our gardens, C. biflorus and C. versicolor, 

 and the two more recent species C. argenteus and C. pusillus. 

 They come early into flower, and may be said generally to 

 precede in blossoming the varieties of C. vermis. They have 

 all a more or less agreeable fragrance, stronger in C. versi- 

 color than in the others, and besides their accordance in the 

 character of the mouth of the tube above noticed, as distin- 

 guishing them from C. vernus and its varieties, have feathered 

 stripes or markings in their external petals. 



