March 14, 1891. 
THE GAEDENING WOELD. 
445 
these aggressive “ young spirits ” had not braved the 
wrath of the old school, and brought within the 
charmed circle of the florists’ regard, despite sorrowful 
protests, many beautiful types of flowers that in our 
day have attained to a great popularity ! The fancy or 
giant Polyanthus is one of these. 
Now Mr. Thurstan twits me with having an interested 
motive in getting some of the money hitherto given to 
the gold-laced Polyanthus, turned over to the fancy 
varieties because I am a grower of them. I cannot 
complain that he should do this. But it is not quite 
true. What I did for several seasons was to endeavour 
to induce the committee of the National Auricula and 
Primula Society to add to the small prizes given to the 
fancy Polyanthus. They said they had not the means 
to do so. But it was obvious to all that the gold-laced 
Polyanthus had been declining in quality, and therefore 
in value for the past two or three years, and last year 
they were generally so bad as to inspire something like 
disgust, and this feeling operating on the minds of some 
of the committee did induce them to agree to transfer 
some of the money from the 
gold-laced to the fancy 
section. 
I am quite sure if Mr. 
Thurstan could witness the 
superb beauty of the fancy 
Polyanthuses shown in 
London he would come to 
the conclusion that they are 
well worthy the attention of 
the florist. He somewhat 
contemptuously relegates 
them all to the border, as the 
old school did Verbenas, &c., 
long ago. I can assure 
my old friend that my flori- 
cultural tastes are as enthu¬ 
siastic as ever, but whether 
I can “fairly be termed a 
florist of the most refined 
type ” is more than I dare 
say. I can show him Prim¬ 
roses and fancy Polyanthus 
displaying quite as much 
refinement as the best of the 
gold-laced Polyanthus. 
Mr. Thurstan holds up to 
view three ideal gold-laced 
Polyanthuses, George IV., 
Cheshire Favourite, and 
Barlow’s Sunrise, “each 
with a single truss of twelve 
pips each, with their 
circular yellow eyes, glorious 
ground colour, and refined 
lacing.” If they could be 
seen in actual fact and not 
merely in ideal, I should 
admire them quite as much 
as he would. I have seen 
a good many gold-laced 
Polyanthuses at shows in the 
north, but rarely a plant 
with more than five pips. 
As to growing gold-laced 
Polyanthus round London, 
if Mr. James Douglas fails 
in Essex, and if as far off as 
Slough, Mr. Turner with all the skill and convenience 
at his command cannot succeed with them, how am I 
to be more favoured amid the merciless London fogs, 
that make it very difficult to flower some plants during 
winter in the glass-houses at Gunnersbury Park, which 
is near to me ? Last October and November 1 had in 
pots in a cold frame on an east aspect, the plants 
standing on raised shelves, with a good circulation of 
air underneath, as promising a lot of named gold-laced 
Polyanthus and Double Primroses as ever I had in my 
life. When the frost set in early in December, the 
lights were shut down, and the plants kept as snug as 
possible. For two months they were frozen, and when 
the thaw came, not one had survived. “ The shelf of 
a cool greenhouse” is my Auricula house, a low lean-to 
facing the north. I cannot get a common Primrose 
scarcely to live in my garden through the winter when 
planted out in the border. How can it be expected that 
I am likely to be more successful with gold-laced Poly¬ 
anthus? Not one of the seedlings I obtained from the 
seed Mr. Thurstan kindly gave me in August last 
survived ; my only hope is in a few seeds that have 
remained dormant until now, and are on the point of 
germinating. 
If Nature, who has been good enough to provide a 
situation for plants of gold-laced Polyanthus during the 
winter, but who has not yet revealed the exact spot to 
me, would kindly pack up the fog and send it away 
into limbo, where it would trouble us no more on this 
earth, one might grow near London gold-laced Poly¬ 
anthus with a fair chance of success.— R. D. 
-•>$<-- 
SNOWDROPS. 
Of all the flowers that bloom in spring none are more 
interesting than the Snowdrop. Their drooping, modest 
and unassuming flowers are silent witnesses of reviving 
nature, and foreshadow the coming summer. When 
King Frost relaxes his icy grasp, the snow-white buds 
appear above the soil, but often, and in the northern 
part of the island especially, the returning winter 
covers them with a mantle of snow, yet they live 
through it unhurt, and continue till the increasing 
temperature causes them to fade. Some half-a-dozen 
species are admitted by botanists, but none of them 
Galantiius Elwesii. 
present striking differences from the rest of their kind, 
although a discerning eye has little difficulty in detect¬ 
ing the salient differences between each. They consti¬ 
tute a study for those who like to make collections, 
and even with those to whom they are nothing more 
than Snowdrops a collection of the different sorts 
means a long-continued succession of flowers from 
October to April, subject to the nature of the season, to 
locality, and the natural flowering period of each sort, 
whether species or variety. 
The greatest amount qf variety is furnished by the 
common species, Galanthus nivalis, the type of which 
is so widely disseminated and so well known in this 
country that it hardly calls for description. The 
earliest flowering form of it is G. n. octobrensis, which 
was brought from Albania and flowers during October 
in this country. Another named G. n. corcyrensis, and 
also known as G. n. pnecox, commences to flower 
about Christmas during mild and open winters. It 
comes from Corfu. An interesting and botanical 
curiosity is G. n. Scharloki, characterised by the spathe 
beiDg divided into its two component parts, and de¬ 
veloped like two green leaves, and the outer segments 
have a green blotch. Another has a yellow ovary, 
and yellow instead of green blotches on the inner 
segments of the perianth, as if they were etiolated or 
blanched, and we sometimes find it named G. n. 
etiolatus in gardens, but the accepted name is G. n. 
lutescens. None of the above varieties are very common, 
although sufficiently distinct to warrant a more ex¬ 
tended cultivation. The flowers of G. n. reflexus are 
smaller than those of the type, and have the outer 
segments reflexed. It is a native of Mount Gargarus, 
and by some is described as the Crimean Snowdrop, 
but that name is more correctly applied to G. plicatus. 
The Caucasian G. caucasicus is considered a sub¬ 
species, most nearly allied to G. nivalis. It is charac¬ 
terised by its broad and deeply glaucous leaves, and 
the narrow claw to the segments. A variety known as 
G virescens has the outer segments suffused with green. 
It is not very striking, but sufficiently distinct for 
those who are making a collection. G. Imperati is a 
native of Naples and Genoa, and is chiefly notable for 
the leaves and the flowers being much larger than 
those of the type. It is a handsome Snowdrop, and may 
be compared to G. nivalis 
Melvillei, a seedling which 
was raised in this country. 
.It has evidently been 
cultivated for more than 
300 years, and the wonder 
is why it never gets more 
widely disseminated in 
gardens. 
The most handsome of 
all the Snowdrops is G. 
Elwesii, a native of the 
mountains of Asia Minor, 
at elevations from 2,000 ft. 
to 5,000 ft. It was first 
introduced to this country 
in 1875, but has been 
repeatedly imported since, 
as the bulbs never become 
properly established. It 
might be possible to acclima¬ 
tise it by sowing seeds 
ripened in this country. The 
great features of the flowers 
are their greater size than 
those of G. nivalis, their 
more'globoseform, especially 
before expansion, and the 
amount of deep green on the 
inner segments. The latter 
are strikingly erect, with 
a spreading and crisped 
mouth. Amongst bulbs that 
are flowering for the first 
time after being introduced, 
individuals may be found 
having much shorter and 
more globose flowers than 
usual, and to this the name 
G. n. globosus is given. 
With the exception of G. 
nivalis, the Crimean Snow¬ 
drop (G. plicatus) is the oldest 
introduction to this country, 
having been brought from 
the Crimea in 1818. The 
flowers are rather smaller 
than those of G. nivalis, but 
the leaves are larger and broader, and exhibit a peculiar 
and characteristic longitudinal fold on each side of the 
midrib, and which suggested the specific name. It is 
certainly interesting and very distinct. 
Equally distinct and more interesting is G. latifolius, 
a native of the Caucasus, at elevations ranging between 
6,000 ft. and 8,000 ft., where it flowers in May. In 
the southern counties of Britain it flowers in February 
and March. The leaves are very broad, strap-shaped, 
and bright green, differing in this respect from all 
others in cultivation or known to science. The others 
without exception have glaucous leaves, and generally, 
if not always, of a darker shade of green. The inner 
segments have a green patch around the segments, 
both externally and internally, but otherwise every 
part is white. 
Closely allied to G. Elwesii is G. grtecus, a native of 
the Island of Chios, on Mount Pellinos, at an altitude 
of 3,800 ft. The flowers are smaller than in the species 
named, and the apical lobes of the inner segments are 
neither spreading nor crisped ; it flowers in April. G. 
Olgffi is a native of Mount Taygetus, in Greece, and 
flowers in October. It differs from all other Snowdrops 
in the absence of lobes to the inner segments, which 
are rounded at the apex, and white. The leaves are 
narrow and glaucous as in all others, with the exception 
above mentioned. 
