34 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
War, great numbers of this Snowdrop flowered and whitened them 
again ; and several forms of it came to our gardens straight from 
those trenches. 
Like nivalis it varies a great deal. The form called G. plicatus 
maximus (fig. 10) is perhaps the finest of all, but will not grow 
happily in every garden. 
It has a yellow variety, which has been grown for many years in the 
Cambridge Botanic Garden, and came to me from thence ; and there 
is also one which in some seasons has green markings on the outer 
segments and in which the inner segments are almost entirely green, 
and this year a double form has appeared in an Irish garden. 
The third group is distinguished by its leaves being wide, without 
folds, and of a peculiarly shining bright green, and generally arching 
outwards in graceful curves. 
The Caucasian species, G. latifolius, was the first known of this 
group, and the others seem to be only geographical forms of it, or 
possibly hybrids. 
G. latifolius itself is shown in fig. n, and it will be seen that its 
flowers are rather small and colourless, and do not come up to the 
promise of its handsome leaves. 
In 1883 Mr. Allen received some bulbs of latifolius from an Austrian 
nurseryman, Herr Gusmus, and among them was one altogether 
superior to the rest. This has since been named G. Allenii, in honour 
of its introducer. Fig. 12 shows what a well-grown specimen of it can 
do when it has arrived at its full growth. Fortunately this treasure 
has a good constitution, and has passed from Mr. Allen's garden at 
Shepton Mallet into many others. 
Several intermediate forms are in cultivation between the typical 
latifolius and the best form of Allenii. A seedling form I noticed at 
Bitton, and was allowed to carry away with me, is probably a 
hybrid between Ikariae and Imperati, and is most like the former, but 
differs in having rather longer and narrower leaves and in flowering a 
fortnight before it. 
The true Ikariae is only found on the Island of Nikaria, off the coast 
of Asia Minor. It is one of the latest of all to flower, and the large 
flowers are very richly marked with green, and its leaves bend outwards 
more than in any other form. 
Fig. 13 shows G. Fosteri, which is thought to be a hybrid between 
latifolius and Elwesii, as having the wide shining leaves of the former 
and the flower of the latter. Also the leaves differ in many speci- 
mens from latifolius in being deeply concave on their upper surface, 
which, as we shall see, is one of the features of G. Elwesii. 
It was introduced by Sir Michael Foster from Amasia, in North 
Central Asia Minor, but has not proved as fine a garden plant as it 
promised to be. Max Leichtlin called it ' The King of Snowdrops,' 
and Sir Michael Foster praised it highly ; but I have never seen a 
finer specimen of it than the one the figure was drawn from, and I think 
it a badly proportioned flower, and find it a bad grower. 
