THE GARDENING WORLD. 22 9 
. . A WHITE VARIETY OF . . 
- The Golden Crocus - 
April 4, 1908. 
'TC'C : " : • ; ' 
'rom an immense list of choice sorts, but 
bersonally known to me I can speak of 
heir rare beauty. 
Few of us have yet purchased corms 
if the great and wonderful novelty 
gladiolus primulinus Maid of the Mist at 
Iwo guineas a bulb, but no doubt even 
his rarity will come down in price before 
nanv years have passed ; then what a treat 
or us! It is described by the Kew Gar¬ 
den authorities as “growing about 4 ft. 
n height, and scented like a Primula. 
The flowers are of a golden yellow, and 
>pen during August.” ‘Evidently a very 
-legant and desirable subject, but not for 
ne --vet. 
T). V. E. 
-- 
VIOLAS. 
Violas, or tufted Pansies, as they are 
:ermed, are amongst the cream of bedding 
ir border plants, providing as they do a 
mass of bloom from early spring until 
rut down by the frosts of late autumn. To 
lave them in the pink of perfection, seed 
-essels should never be allowed to form, 
md dying flowers should be nipped off 
right to the base of the stem. 
When half of the flowering season is 
bone all the old hollow- stems should be 
:ut right back, retaining the new ones, 
md top-dressing the surface soil with a 
■ompost of well-decayed manure and leaf- 
nould. This should be thoroughly forked 
n between the plants, finishing up with a 
iberal supply of water. In a very short 
ime new shoots will appear in profusion, 
md give a continual display of flowers till 
ate autumn; 
Violas have a very pretty effect w'hen 
flanted in the lawn in little beds of varied 
lesign. about a dozen plants of the same 
olour massed together in each bed, and 
hese beds being a few yards apart. This 
nethod shows the contrast of colour effect 
'etween the flow 7 ers and foliage and the 
•reeff sward; the result is truly a picture 
f magnificence. 
Their propagation from seed is very 
imple and interesting. First procure a 
ompost of rich sandy loam, next fill some 
■oxes or pans with this soil, and see that 
he boxes are well d'ained. Sprinkle the 
eeds thinly ‘over the surface of the soil 
nd lightly cover w-ith sandy soil. If 
haded and kept moist, germination w-ill 
bon take place. When large enough to 
andle they can be pricked out into a 
'ame, and when spring frosts have dis- 
ppeared they can be set out in their 
owering quarters. 
Another means of propagation is 
fforded by taking the maiden shoots and 
eating them as cuttings. Discard the 
Id shoots for cuttings, as they are hollow 
!nd useless. 
Joseph Floyd. 
Westhoughton. 
-- 
orticultssre and Arboriculture at the Franco- 
British Exhibition. 
The dates decided upon for the holding 
special exhibitions are May 19 and 20, 
ardy plants, trees, and shrubs in flow’er; 
me 24 and 25, Orchids and pot-grown 
ants generally; September 23 and 24, 
uit and general garden produce. 
The original or normal form of C. chry- 
santhus has golden-yellow 7 or even orange- 
yellow flowers, and some varieties of it 
are characterised by being suffused w'ith 
brownish purple on the outer face or even 
lined with it. In these ttvo cases there 
is an additional colour to the original 
one, and the varieties are both distinct 
and pretty. The most distinct variety of 
C. chrysanthus is that above named, 
in which there is a lack of colour rather 
than an addition. 
When the normal form of a flower is 
} 7 ellow, it does not often happen that we 
can get a w 7 hite one, because yellow is 
very difficult to displace. No doubt it 
would depend largely upon the character 
of the colour itself and how long it had 
been associated with the flow 7 er. If yel¬ 
low had been the ground colour for many 
ages, it is extremely difficult to displace, 
nevertheless it seems to have occurred in 
the wild state, and such bulbs have been 
imported to this country and increased. 
As may be seen by reference to the ac¬ 
companying illustration, the centre of the 
flower is dark. It was, indeed, yellow, 
though the camera represents that bright 
hue as being black. 
(Crocus chrysanthus albidus.) 
Here then, although we may regard the 
colour as having been washed out of the 
flower, to use a gardening term, it still 
retains that hue at the base of the flow r er 
where it is most highly concentrated. A 
peculiarity of Crocus is that when two 
colours are present, they may exist on one 
side of the flow 7 er only, or upon both, but, 
as a rule, any additional colour is added 
on the outside, while the colour inside 
may be, and often is, quite different. 
-- 
The Weather at Glasgow last Year. 
For many years a series of meteorolo¬ 
gical notes have been made at Glasgow, 
stating the effects of the w 7 eather during 
the year on vegetation. For some time 
past these records have been kept by Mr. 
James Whitton, Superintendent of Parks. 
The rainfall last year was above the aver¬ 
age, being 42.49 in. Nevertheless, the 
rainfall w T as normal till the end of Sep¬ 
tember. The heaviest rainfall was dur¬ 
ing October, when 6.67 in. fell. Decem¬ 
ber and August gave the next highest rain¬ 
fall. The driest month was September, 
with a rainfall of 1.24 in. There were 
147 dry days in the year, as against 152 
in 1906- 
Maclaren and Sons. 
Crocus chrysanthus albidus. 
