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CULTURE OF CROCUSES. 
4. Flask Shape (C. lagenceflorus). This comes into blossom early. The 
leaf-sheaths are dingy brown and large. Leaves few, rigid and upright, broad, 
scarcely appearing when the blossoms expand ; after flowering they grow long and 
remain green late. Flowers numerous, small, turbinate. Tube long and white, 
but pale yellow at top. Petals deep yellow, short, obtuse, very concave, and much 
imbricated, expanding in the sun j the outer narrowest. Roots rather large, even, 
not angular; skin resembling that of C. luteus, but less striated. There is a 
difference in the hardiness and consequent time of flowering in some roots, but not 
of sufficient importance to distinguish them as varieties. Those that flower freely 
should be selected for cultivation. 
5. Common Yellow (C. luteus ). This is the most common crocus cultivated, 
and is generally known by the name of the Dutch Yellow. It comes into flower 
with the earliest of the varieties of C. vernus, soon after C. sulphureus, and continues 
to produce a succession of blossoms profusely for a considerable time. 
6. Cream Coloured (C. lacteus). Of this there are two varieties, both of 
which are the least common of any of the cultivated crocuses : some few years ago 
they were very rare indeed, and are now only to be found in the gardens of collectors 
of curious bulbs. 
C. lacteus concolor. This crocus flowers tolerably freely ; it blossoms soon after 
C. lagenceflorus , and continues to produce flowers till nearly every other kind, 
except the late varieties of C. vernus , have ceased to blow. The leaves are narrow, 
short at first, they grow rigidly upright, then become long, remaining green late. 
Every part of the flower is cream-coloured, except the mouth of the tube, which is 
tinged with dull pale yellow. It produces good seeds. The roots have a strong 
similarity to those of C. lagenceflorus. 
C. lacteus penicillatus. This is perhaps the most interesting of the crocuses 
which are cultivated, differing from the other variety by the elegant stripes on the 
base of the outer petals. It is the C. lagenceflorus a of Mr. Salisbury, and the C. 
lagenceflorus y of Mr. Haworth. It produces its blossoms nearly as early, though 
after the preceding, and continues in flower as late. The petals are longer than 
those of the preceding, and though of the same colour, have not quite the same 
thickness of substance ; the inner petals are broader. It produces plenty of seeds. 
The roots are like those of the other kind. 
Second Class. 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. 
pusellus. They come early into flower, and may be said generally to precede in 
blossoming the varieties of C. vernus. They have all a more or less agreeable 
fragrance, stronger in C. versicolor than in the others, and besides their accordance 
in the character of the mouth of the tube, have feathered stripes on their external 
petals. 
7. Scotch Crocus (C. biflora ). The reason of this species being called Scotch 
Crocus is unknown. It contains three varieties, which are the first to appear in the 
spring, their blossoms preceding those of C. susianus. The earliest have some 
