Plate 111. 
WINTER CROCUSES. 
It lias been said that the man who can make two blades of grass grow where one only 
grew before is a benefactor to his country ; and it may with equal truth be said of horti- 
culturists, that the man who can give us earlier blooming varieties of plants by one week, 
or even day, so as to shorten our dull northern winter, deserves the thanks of every lover of 
flowers. The three Crocuses we now figure, and which were courteously sent on to us for 
illustration in the Floral Magazine by Messrs. Backhouse and Son, of York, derive their 
great value from their extreme earliness ; they are, in fact, winter flowering species, and thrive 
well in ordinary soil. C. chrysanlhus and C. nivalis are from the mountains of Greece; the 
former produces its flowers in dense masses, which are rich yellow in colour ; the latter (which 
is the same with C. Sieberi and C. sublimis ) is a purple Crocus, with a yellow centre, and is 
one of the commonest in Greece ; it is found at an elevation of from 1000 to 7000 feet, and 
frequently flowers near the melting snow. It is found also in Bosnia, Crete, and Herze- 
govina. C. Imperatonius (or C. Imperati), is a magnificent winter-defying species, rich purple 
in colour, with a white centre. The external surface of the three outer petals is creamy-white, 
elegantly striped with deep purple-brown lines. Its dark-green leaves appear some time 
before the flowers, which latter begin to show themselves in mid-winter ; and it requires less 
sun to expand the blossoms than any other species. Amongst other virtues, it increases 
readily from seed, which becomes ripe in May. This plant is the showiest of its genus, and 
one which puts forth its beautiful and fragrant blossoms weeks before other spring Crocuses 
dare to venture theirs, beginning to flower in mid-winter, and persistently continuing in 
bloom well into the spring. There is also a white variety of this species. C. Imperatonius is 
from Calabria, in Sicily, at 3000 to 7000 feet altitude. 
Plate 112. 
PHORMIUM COLENSOI — VARIEGATUM. 
This highly ornamental foliage plant, which is a native of New Zealand, and commonly 
known as New Zealand Flax, has narrowish, erect, pointed, dark-green leaves, banded with 
one or more narrow stripes of creamy yellow, each leaf elegantly margined with a narrow 
crimson line. It has the same habit of growth as P. tenax, but is altogether a smaller 
and more elegant plant, while its more erect habit and narrower leaves gave it quite a 
distinct appearance from that of the variegated P. tenax. 
This plant has been figured from the collection of Mr. William Bull, of Chelsea, who 
(in 1868) first introduced and sent the plant out. In this gentleman’s collection are three 
other forms of great beauty — viz., P. nigro punctum, P. tenax variegatum, and P. tenax Veitchii. 
The former is a very distinct, compact-growing form, much dwarfer in habit, and smaller 
in foliage than the forms usually cultivated, and one which forms a thick tuft, the larger 
leaves being about 2 feet long, and which spread out as the plants become mature. They 
are sap-green in colour, about an inch and a quarter wide, narrowly edged with blackish- 
purple, the edging becoming broader and more evident on the base, where it forms a con- 
spicuous zigzag dark line. The plant above mentioned with P. tenax variegatum are extremely 
desirable plants for greenhouse decoration, or for planting out in the flower-garden and lawn. 
