OF SELBORNE. 
429 
ADDITIONS TO LETTER XLI, page 236. 
Of all the propenfitles of plants none feem more ftrange than 
their different periods of bloiToming. Some produce their flowers 
in the winter, or very firft dawnings of fpring; many when the 
fpring is eftabliflied ; fome at midfummer, and feme not till au- 
tumn. When we fee the helleborus fcetidus and helkhorus nkxr 
blowing at Chriftmas, the helleborus hyemalls in January, and 
the helleborus viridis as foon as ever it emerges out of the ground, 
we do not wonder, becaufe they are kindred plants that we exped; 
fliould keep pace the one with the other. But other congenerous 
vegetables differ fo widely in their time of flowering, that we can- 
not but admire. I fliall only inftance at prefent in the crocus 
fativus, the vernal, and the autumnal crocus, which have fuch an 
affinity, that the beft botanifcs only make them varieties of the fame 
genus, of which there is only one fpecies; not being able to difcerti 
any difference in the corolla, or in the internal ftrudure. Yet the 
'Vernal crocus expands it's flowers by the beginning of March at far- 
theft, and often in very rigorous weather ; and cannot be retarded 
but by fome violence offered : — while the autumnal (the Saffron) 
defies the influence of the fpring and fummer, and will not blow- 
till moft plants begin to fade and run to feed. This circumftance 
is one of the wonders of the creation, little noticed, becaufe a 
common occurrence j yet ought not to be overlooked on account 
of 
