April 29, 1905. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
351 
Chionodoxa Luciliae Tmoli. 
veloped in that mouth. The effects appear very much as if 
the leaves were scorched hy sunshine, and have from time 
immemorial been understood, or rather believed, to be caused 
by the moonshine of this particular moon, probably because 
at no other season of the year did similar effects present them¬ 
selves. Perhaps this belief was stronger on the Continent 
than in our own country, for we find it a common opinion 
among gardeners and agriculturists fifty or sixty years ago in 
France. 1 he Trench call this moon “ La Lune Pousse,” which 
means the red moon, either on. account of its ruddy appear¬ 
ance or the rusty effects of its supposed influence on plants. 
Now, the declared evil effects of this moon were never 
observed, except under certain atmospheric conditions. These 
■were invariably a clear, still atmosphere. If the sky was in 
any way overcast and the light of the moon obscured, the 
effects were not in evidence. Nor did the people believe the 
effects to be due to frost, because they appeared when the most 
sensitive thermometers did not record within 4 deg. or 6 deg. 
of freezing point. Therefore before science wa-s what it now 
is, these scorching effects were put down as the direct influence 
Chionodoxa Luciliae Tmoli. 
of moonshine. In our own country something akin to this is 
found in the common belief that the harvest moon has a strong 
power in ripening the cornfields and certain fruits. Of course, 
the belief is quite erroneous, like many other old-world notions 
which have a hold of the people. 
At the same time, the scorchings complained of are bv no 
means delusions. Yet it is quite impossible that the moon, 
on account of its nature, can justly be branded with such potent 
qualities. In virtue of this, it can contain no burning 
properties, nor withal any ripening powers. Even by the aid 
of the most powerful concentrating glasses, the rays of the 
moon are found to* make no sensible impression in the raising 
of the thermometer. How then, it may be asked, do those 
effects come about, seeing the most delicate thermometers on- 
such occasions fall not nearer freezing point than 4 or 5 deg. 1 
The explanation evidently rests in the fact of radiation and 
evaporation becoming so rapid as to chill or freeze solid bodies, 
Some bulbs have been sent to this country under the name 
of Chionodoxa Boissieri, but from what, we can now see of 
them when in bloom, the variety is evidently C. Luciliae 
Tmoli, the latter name being also spelt Tmolusii in gardens 
in reference to the name of the mountain on which it was 
originally collected. 
Under some circumstances the flowers of the plant under 
notice have a crisped appearance, but we think that is the 
result of certain conditions rather than a permanent char¬ 
acter. The flowers are about IT in. in diameter, and have 
oblong linear segments that are of a deep sky-blue on the 
outer half and white in the lower half with a blue rib. When 
these flowers are in perfection, they are very handsome, even 
by comparison with any of-the others in cultivation if it were 
possible to get them all together. The scapes are about 6 in. 
to 8 in. in height and bear as many flowers as the ordinary 
C. Luciliae usually does. As a rule, each bulb produces two 
spathulate deep green leaves, hooded at the tip. From the 
ordinary C. Luciliae the variety differs by its 
narrower segmentswifh a greater area of white, 
and by the flowers being produced later than 
those of any other variety of this species. The 
variety is therefore not only beautiful, but 
will serve as a succession to C. Luciliae, C. L. 
sardensis and C. L. gigantea. It practically 
brings up the rear of this species in time of 
flowering. 
Our illustration of the above plant-was pre¬ 
pared from a photograph taken in the nursery 
of Messrs. Barr and Sons at Ditton Hill, 
Surrey, during the first week of April. 
Natural Phenomena. 
The gardener on account of his close asso¬ 
ciation with Nature has exceptional advan¬ 
tages for noting phenomenal events which 
pass by unobserved to the world at large, 
even mayhap escape the wakeful eye of the 
meteorologist himself. During the hard frost 
of January and February, 1894, I had a very 
extraordinary experience one very hard night. 
All through the day the thermometer never 
varied from 12 deg. F., indicating 20 deg. of 
frost. At night the mercury fell 3 deg. only, 
and stood at 9 deg.—that is 23 deg. of frost 
—till about 7.30, when I discovered the mer¬ 
cury to have suddenly risen to> 17 deg., 8 deg. 
above the point it touched an hour before. 
There was no sensible diminution of the 
frost, the sky from zenith to horizon did not 
have a single cloud nor any haze, and there 
was not a. whiff of wind to' break the stillness 
of the air. I concluded that my good 
thermometer had suddenly gone wrong with the unusually 
hard frost. In half an hour I again returned to the ther¬ 
mometer, and to my astonishment' found the mercury 4 deg. 
lower, and in half an hour later it again reached 9 deg.— 
23 deg. of frost, the original point. To one unaccustomed to 
thermometric work and unacquainted with the conditions 
which cause variations, this incident would probably have 
caused no astonishment. On the contrary, such, I consider, 
is a phenomenon of veiy rare occurrence and one difficult to 
account for. 
I take it for granted that everyone has heard of the harvest 
moon and knows its peculiar difference from all the other 
twelve. It may not be the case that all have heard of the 
April moon and its alleged evil effects on vegetation. It 
would appear that if the moon begins and ends in April, it is 
supposed to have a pernicious effect on the young sprouting 
oliage and buds and also any blossom that should he dc- 
