.March 18, 1905. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
219 
Notes on the Illustrations in this Issue. 
Ramondia serbica Nataliae. 
Only four species of Ramondia are known to botanists, all 
of them natives of Europe, and interesting from the fact that 
they represent a cool section of the order Gesneriaceae, most of 
the members of which are natives of warm, temperate, tropical 
or sub-tropical countries. All of them are in cultivation, and 
the best known is R. pyrenaica. 
The variety under notice is sometimes spoken of as a species, 
but the differences are too insignificant to permit of this view 
! being maintained. The variety Nataliae is a much superior 
plant, however, to the typical R. serbica from a gardener’s 
point of view. The flowers consist of four segments, although 
we have seen six and also three. Our illustration of a plant 
in the collection of Messrs. T. S. Ware, Limited, Ware’s Nur- 
I series, Feltham, Middlesex, shows seven flowers, all of which 
had four segments, each of a beautiful bluish-purple, with an 
| orange eye at the base of the yellow anthers. The orange zone 
consists of twice as many clusters of deep 
yellow or orange hairs as there are segments, 
and this forms one of the most striking fear 
tures of the flower by contrast with the seg¬ 
ments themselves. 
This beard gives the flower the appearance 
of a Potato blossom or an Exacum, while at 
the same time more nearly related to a Ver- 
; bascum, where the beard i's confined to* the 
; stamens. The leaves are somewhat rhomboid 
or lozenge-shaped, crenate, rugose, and more 
or less covered with grey or rusty hairs on 
both surfaces. In a small plant like that 
represented, the leaves would vary from 1 in. 
to U in. in length, and number from eight to 
a dozen. 
By comparing this plant with the better- 
known R. pyrenaica the flowers at first sight 
are veiy similar, but the zone around the 
anthers is deep orange, and the hairs forming 
the beard are much shorter. The leaves are 
much smaller in Nataliae, less coarsely 
wrinkled, and altogether more refined in 
appearance than those of R. pyrenaica. R. s. 
Nataliae is valuable from a. horticultural point 
: of view by reason of the neat habit and 
I sprightly appearance of the flowers, and be¬ 
cause it is much more easy to cultivate with 
; success than its parent, more easy to' keep 
alive, and flowers much more freely. When 
it becomes more common we should like to 
see it more frequently planted in shady situa¬ 
tions on the rockery in the same way as the better-known 
species. 
Colchicum crociflorum. 
The species of Meadow Saffron are really more numerous 
than gardeners are aware, and much more varied in the form, 
size and colour of the flowers than is generally suspected, 
lhat under notice has been compared to a Crocus, to which it 
hears a remarkable outward appearance, though the botanist 
is easily able to distinguish it at a glance by looking into the 
interior of the bloom. The flowers are produced four to eight 
II a cluster from the conn, slightly in succession to one 
mother, thereby keeping up a prolonged display during Feb- 
inary and the early part of March, when grown in a cold frame 
>r a cool house. They are white, with a purple stripe down 
lie back of each segment, but this is only faintly shown on the 
inner face. The leaves accompany the flowers, but are rather 
diort at the time the blooms are ' at their best, and keep 
gradually developing during the spring. 
This may therefore be described as a spring-flowering Col¬ 
chicum, in which the leaves accompany, but are shorter than, 
t ie flowers, and therefore strikingly different from the autumn- 
j owering species, which are mostly of some shade of lilac or 
purple, except in the white varieties. The easiest method tor 
the noil-botanical reader to determine the difference between 
a Colchicum and a Crocus consists of the number of stamens, 
which are six in the former and never more than three in the 
latter. The styles, however, would be sufficient in themselves 
to distinguish the two. There is no other Colchicum in cul¬ 
tivation that has white flowers with purple stripes in the 
manner described. The species was introduced from Kokan, 
in Asia. 
Crocus Balansae. 
Most gardeners are perfectly satisfied to plant and grow the 
blue, lilac, purple and white varieties of C. vemus with the 
Dutch varieties of C. aureus, and perhaps a few of C. biflorus, 
and the Cloth of Gold (C. susianus). There is, however, a 
wealth of beauty amongst the species of Crocus which have not 
yet been improved by the florists. The size, but more par¬ 
ticularly the charming colours and the early period at which 
they flower, afford the means of keeping many a spot in the 
garden gay with them from September till the end of April 
Crocus Balansae : Flowers orange and feathered bronzy-crimson. 
with a few straggling members that bloom in summer, and 
thus almost round the year. That under notice blooms in 
February and March, and is most nearly allied to C. vitellinus, 
the yolk-of-egg Crocus, another handsome species rarely seen 
outside of botanic gardens or the collections of a few enthu¬ 
siastic amateurs. 
C. Balansae has orange flowers with three feathered bronzy- 
crimson stripes on the back of the outer segments. The latter 
are elliptic, blunt, about 1 in. long, and terminate downwards 
in a dark purple tube. The floral organs are also extremely 
interesting though seldom looked into, except by the botanists. 
A reference to the form of the style would, however, reveal that 
this species belongs to the section Schizostigma, for the simple 
reason that the three style-arms are again cut into several 
thread-like divisions. The leaves vaiy in number from three 
to six, of rich dark green, with a white rib, and as long as the 
flowers, thus making a neatly furnished plant from a garden 
point of view. 
The plant is as easily cultivated in pots or pans as the 
common vemus, and affords a colour rarely, if ever, met with 
even amongst the Dutch improved forms of C. aureus. The 
accompanying illustration shows the general habit of the plant, 
