REPORT OF MEETINGS. 
213 ; 
damaged that a perfect umbel cannot be had. But a specimen he- 
has furnished leaves little doubt that the plant is d. dculum; or^ 
more correctly, Nectaroscordmn siculum LindL, a rare and beautiful 
native of Sicily and Sardinia, which does well in English gardens. 
The tulip ground near Combe Hay has been visited this spring.. 
Instead of the plants being confined to one field as had been reported, 
the writer found an abundance distributed in three adjoining large- 
pastures, and so spread over a considerable area. The ground slopes 
gently towards the south, and is fairly moist. A little more than 
twenty years ago it was arable land, and the., tulips are said to have 
flowered more freely under the plough than they do at the present 
time. Now-a-days flowers are very rarely produced, not more than 
two or three being met with yearly among many hundreds of bulbs. 
Another member of the lily tribe, as rare as it is handsome, is 
the Snake’s Head or Fritillary. The chequered petals of this choice 
flower are so seldom seen in North Somerset that the news of its^ 
existence near Barrow Gurney was very welcome. Fortunately the 
plant seems not to suffer injury from gathering, as at this spot 
children . and others pick practically the whole crop year after year. 
A certain Clifton wild-garden possesses a very peculiar sport of 
that common but yet most charming of our spring flowers, the- 
Blue-bell. Normally each flower upon a scape springs from the axil 
of two tiny coloured bracts ; but the plant in question has developed 
these bracts to the length of two inches and of the same tint as the- 
foliage. Thus the inflorescence has a most peculiar appearance. Off- 
sets from the bulb originally discovered and brought in from the 
woods have since given rise to about twenty individuals, all possess- 
ing the same peculiarity. The white blue-bell is fairly frequent, and 
is a beautiful variety. But a pale pink form is still more attractive. 
The latter occurs in a wood not far from South Stoke, where it is 
scattered singly amid a host of the ordinary kind. It is no un- 
common thing, however, for blue-flowered plants to vary with other- 
tints. 
A delightful spring ramble can be made to the meadows at 
Churchill where the Narcissi grow^ Some open fields on one side of 
the parish are well filled with patches of the Common Daffodil, and 
make a brave show about Easter-tide. Not far away, but entirely 
separate from its sister species, and flowering a month later, the- 
handsome N. hijlorus covers a space so large that one feels satisfied 
its first arrival- — supposing it really is not indigenous with us — -must- 
have been at a very ancient date. It is, in fact, believed that this 
Narcissus and one or two others were found in England before the 
snowdrop was introduced. The specific name hijlorus is not the most 
apt that could have been chosen, for we see at. Churchill many stems- 
bearing but one flower, while others may have three. The curious 
movements of the flower-stalk in Daffodils must be of importance to 
fertilization. At first a bud stands nearly erect, then the peduncle 
bends over until its flower is almost inverted, and finally it rises 
again to the first position. 
