[Illustration: 45]
LINNAEUS considers the Crocus, or Saffron of the shops, which
blows invariably in the autumn, and the spring Crocus, with its numerous
varieties (of which PARKINSON, in his Garden of Pleasant
Flowers, enumerates no less than twenty-seven) as one and the same
species; other Botanists have considered them as distinct, particularly
PROF. JACQUIN, whose opinion on this subject we deem the most
decisive.
We have figured the yellow variety, which is the one most commonly
cultivated in our gardens, though according to the description in the
_Flora Austriaca_, the _Crocus vernus_, in its wild state, is usually
purple or white.
The cultivation of this plant is attended with no difficulty; in a light
sandy loam, and dry situation, the roots thrive, and multiply so much as
to require frequent reducing; they usually flower about the beginning of
March, and whether planted in rows, or patches, on the borders of the
flower-garden, or mixed indiscriminately with the herbage of the lawn,
when expanded by the warmth of the sun, they produce a most brilliant
and exhilirating effect.
The most mischievous of all our common birds, the sparrow, is very apt
to commit great depredations amongst them when in flower, to the no
small mortification of those who delight in their culture; we have
succeeded in keeping these birds off, by placing near the object to be
preserved, the skin of a cat properly stuffed: a live cat, or some bird
of the hawk kind confined in a cage, might perhaps answer the purpose
more effectually, at least in point of duration.
[46]
~Leucojum vernum. Spring Snow-Flake.~
_Class and Order._
~Hexandria Monogynia.~
_Generic Character._
_Corolla_ campaniformis, 6-partita, apicibus incrassata, _Stigma_
simplex.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._
LEUCOJUM _vernum_ spatha uniflora, stylo clavato. _Lin. Syst. Vegetab.
p. 316._