198 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cleft at its apex. G. Fosteri also has a basal blotch on its 

 petals, but the spots on either side the apical sinus are confluent, 

 thus forming a kidney or saddle-shaped blotch. 



In G. plicatus we generally find a bold saddle-shaped apical 

 blotch, but in one variety at least, G. plicatus ''Emerald," the 

 green blotch extends nearly the whole length of the petal, as it 

 does also in the case of G. virescens, leaving only a narrow white 

 margin. The way in which the green colour, concentrated 

 outside the petals of Snowdrops into kidney or saddle-shaped 

 blotches, is diffused in lines inside, is peculiar and interesting. 



The Cultivation of Snowdeops. 



Speaking of the culture of these flowers, one may almost venture 

 to say the less they are cultivated the better ! By this I really 

 mean to imply that on suitable soils the Snowdrop will grow any- 

 where, in hedges and orchards, and in woods and the fields, as 

 well as in gardens. The fact of their not requiring special culture, 

 if other things are in their favour, is proven by the luxuriant way 

 in which the Snowdrop has become naturalised throughout 

 England and Wales, as also in Scotland, and in a lesser degree 

 perhaps in Ireland. 



When I wrote to Mr. Peter Barr to ask the names and ad- 

 dresses of the trade " growers " of Snowdrops for trade purposes, 

 he said there were none in the same sense that there are culti- 

 vators of Tulip, Hyacinth, Crocus, and Daffodil bulbs, but that 

 the Snowdrop dealers drive about and purchase any batches 

 of Snowdrops they can find growing in orchards, hedge banks, 

 cottage gardens, &c, or here and there in the fields as natural- 

 ised on old farms and manse lands. In Lincolnshire, where the 

 Snowdrop may be considered a speciality, patches, varying from 

 one or two square yards to a perch or two, are grown by cottagers ; 

 but the upshot of this is, that after a few years the roots rot, so 

 that it is a precarious industry, sometimes succeeding and some- 

 times failing. The cottagers lift the roots every other year, 

 selling the larger and re-planting the smaller ones. Within the 

 last few years, however, at least one farmer has devoted an acre 

 or two of black moorland soil to the culture of these bulbs by the 

 million. 



The fact appears to be that the Snowdrop is as shy of long- 



