XXII. On the Cultivation of Crocuses, with a short Account of the different Species known at present. By ADRIAN HARDY HAWORTH, Esq. F. L. S. &c.

Read February 7, 1809.

THE Horticultural Society having wisely determined to advance the knowledge of both ornamental, and esculent plants, the author of this paper has long meditated to lay before them a detail of the beautiful Genus Crocus, and its mode of culture; which at length he ventures diffidently to bring forward. That it merits their attentions, will readily be admitted; directed, as those attentions. are, equally to the pleasure of the peasant, and the prince; showering alike the knowledge communicated to them over all mankind.

Crocuses are universally admired, annually gilding with vegetable blue and gold, the borders of almost every garden. Besides their season of bloom occurring in early spring, proves much more acceptable than it would at any other time; for at that unsettled period of sunshine, or gloom; of frost, or snow; few are the subjects of Flora, who venture to open their fair bosoms to the sun and none of these are calculated to vie with the charming species of this Genus. Companions of their early precursor, the modest Snowdrop, sweet emblem of drooping merit, and humility;

they appear to the greatest advantage in its company, where its icy charms serve but as a foil to their gayer colours.

Hence they are commonly found planted together, and carefully fostered, from age to age, along with Daffodils, and Tulips; Polyanthuses, Primroses, and Auriculas; Anemonies, and the earlier sorts of Hyacinths: lovely, fragrant assemblages, affording salubrious employment to declining years: and thus descending in complete security from one generation to another :-from those memorable days in the annals of British Horticulture, the days of GERRARD and JOHNSON, to those of PARKINSON and his earthly Paradise : thence passing safely through those still more estimable ones. of MILLER, "Horticultural Prince," down to our own. But for the laudable and happy care of these venerable gardeners, various other vernal beauties of the bulbous tribe, which adorned in such profusion, the gardens of our forefathers, would never have flourished in ours; varieties, which their industry had raised from pear, even as it is, irretrievably lost to us. digressing, and return to the more immediate object of this paper.

and many

seeds, apBut to cease

It is not my intention to give a complete history of this Genus with all its synonyms, &c. or any very minute description of its several species; for such a performance would occupy far more time, than I can at present spare. I shall therefore only briefly recite the species known to me, with an improved mode of raising new varieties of these plants from seeds; and of cultivating and encreasing the old ones.

Not fewer than thirty seasons have revolved since these

vernal beauties became the objects of my horticultural assiduity and every succeeding year has added something to my knowledge of their propensities, and distinctions having at various intervals raised an immense number. Nevertheless, in the course of collecting their seeds I have with surprise perceived, that those of the blue, purple, and white flowered kinds alone, ripened with me. For I never observed either a single capsule from a yellow* one, or raised a single seedling with the least tint of that colour, in any part of its petals. In nature, therefore, it should appear, that some inexplicable distinction exists between the yellows, and the other species. The leaves of the yellows, likewise, are much narrower throughout every species and variety.

With respect to the culture of these plants, it shall be treated of from the seed upwards, to the age of maturity, or flowering this occupies a period of from three to four years. Being of the bulbous kind, the seeds of Crocuses should be gathered as soon as they have ripened; which is denoted by the partial splitting of their capsules at the top, as well as by their pale and dry appearance, and by the large reddening seeds themselves becoming more or less visible between the capsular fissures. This happens sometime in the month of June, about the period of the annual exsiccation of their leaves.

It may be worthy of remark in this place, that the capsules of Crocuses are excluded in a manner widely different from that of most other vegetables. They are not, as usual,

The yellow flowered Crocuses, except the species with very small anthers, have been observed in other gardens to ripen seeds, and in some seasons very plentifully. Sccr.

visible in the base of the flowers, at the time of flowering, in the incipient state of what LINNEUS has so improperly called a germen; being at that period secluded from the reach of the eye, hidden far beneath the soil, near the very bulb, at the base of the long, and at that time almost sessile tube of the corolla. For it is not until long after the total decay of the flower, that the swoln capsule emerges upon a real white peduncle above the surface of the earth. This extraordinary mode of semination, is still more conspicuous in Colchicum, the flowers of which are seen in autumn unaccompanied even by leaves, the latter not appearing until the spring following, folding in their fostering bosoms the large, unwieldy, pregnant capsules. Even in the present subject of this essay, one solitary species, and that a British one, observes the same fashion; viz. Crocus nudiflorus; flowering without leaves in autumn, which it throws out along with the fruit in spring.

The seeds of Crocuses are best sown immediately after being gathered, in light, dry earth, that will neither bind nor retain moisture long: but it is not necessary that it should be rich; as that might encourage a too redundant, and fatal humidity. Large pots, or pans, or small shallow boxes of such soil, with a sufficiency of holes and potsherds at the bottom, for the purpose of draining off with certainty, all superfluous moisture, are the properest receptacles for these seeds; which should be sown thinly (for almost every one will vegetate), and not covered at the time of sowing more than half an inch with the mould.

The most eligible aspect, or situation, for the seed boxes, until the autumnal rains set in, is a moderately shady,

yet unsheltered spot; permitting them to receive all the influence of the weather, except such heavy showers as would wash bare the seeds. As soon, however, as the autumnal rains commence, it will be highly advantageous to remove the boxes to a warm aspect and to protect them from all excessive rains, frosts, and snows, by the occasional shelter of a garden frame: allowing them, nevertheless, the benefit of the full air, at other times; but more especially after the seminal* leaf (for they have but one, being monocotyledonous plants), eager to commence the career of life, urges its fine setaceous point above the surface of the earth. This occurs sometimes about the end of the year; but oftener in earliest spring. After this, their birth, if I may use the expression, it is quite essential that they should have complete exposure to the air, even in frosty weather; for they are prodigiously hardy with respect to cold; screening them, however, occasionally, like early Radishes, with loose straw, from other injurious effects of frost: so as to prevent their being raised out of their infantile beds by its baneful effects. But remove all the straw-covering again, as soon as the frost is over.

In this manner may the young Crocuses be treated until the sun acquires sufficient power to dry the earth in the boxes, so as to require daily waterings: for they must have gentle rose-waterings, whenever they are quite dry. It will be then found advantageous to remove them to a cooler, but not sheltered situation, and here they may remain until their leaves die down; giving them, as just hinted, at all times,

* A figure of the seminal leaf and bulb of Crocus Lagenæflorus with a magnified transverse section of the former is shewn in Plate VI.