110 
ENGLISH BOTANY. 
flowers, since, and probably long before, the time of Edward the 
Third. This beautiful flower would appear to have attracted 
especial notice when floriculture was yet in its infancy; and more 
than two hundred years ago Parkinson enumerated no less than 
than thirty-one kinds as having * been carefully sought out and 
preserved by divers to furnish a garden of denty curiosity/ The 
fact that so great a number of kinds were cultivated at so remote 
a period greatly strengthens the probability that the Crocus is 
not an aboriginal native of Great Britain; and the same author 
remarks, ‘ the several places of these saffron flowers have been 
found out, some in one country, and some in another; as the 
small purple and white, and striped white in Spain ; the yellow 
in Mesia, about Belgrade; the great purple in Italy; and now 
by such friends’ helps as have sent them, they prosper as well in 
our gardens as in their natural places. Yet I must give you this 
to understand, that some of those formerly expressed have been 
raised up unto us by the sowing of their seeds/ From which it 
would appear that by seminal offspring varieties were then 
raised. As a garden flower, the crocus is still somewhat in repute ; 
but that particular care and attention which would seem at one 
time to have been bestowed upon it has long since been given to 
more successful rivals, such as tulips, pinks, carnations, and many 
others. Thus illustrating the lines of the immortal Shakspeare, 
that e novelty is only in request; and it is dangerous to be aged 
in any kind of course/ The above remarks apply to Great Britain 
only. On the Continent, but more especially in Holland, the 
Crocus is still cultivated with much care, and many new varieties 
raised/’ 
We demur to so much of the foregoing as represents the spring 
flowering Crocus to be neglected, as we are cognisant of nearly three 
times the number mentioned by Parkinson, all of seminal origin; and 
this has led us to think that the species which flower in autumn 
might be made to vary in their colours, and to be as ornamental 
as their congeners of the spring are universally allowed to be. 
Their flowers in September and October would be equally accept¬ 
able as those of March and April, lending a brilliancy to the par¬ 
terre when most of its occupants are on the decline; and the 
one represented in the woodcut we should select for the expe¬ 
riment. 
