ioé 106
CROCUS pusillus.
Small Crocus.
Natural Order. Irideæ. Brown prodr. \ . p . ^02.
CROCUS. Spatha plerumque 2-valvis: valvula interior
multo angustior. Perianthium petaloideum, infuodibuliforme :
tubo longissimo, basi subterráneo ; limbo 6-partito, regulare.
Stigmata 3.—Radix tuberoso-tunicata. Foliis gramineis cana-
liculatis. Flores radicales, subsolitarii.
C. pusillus, foliis flore longioribus, perianthii laciniis exteriori-
bns oblongo-lanceolatis acutis ; interioribus ovatis sub-emar-
ginatis multo majoribus.
Crocus pusillus. Tenore, Catalogas plantarum liorti regii
Neapolitani, 1813, p . 31.
R o o t tunicate, nearly globular, clothed with a smootli
glossy brown shell, and producing a long fusiform
white tuber on one side when growing, and numerous
slender fibres on the other side. Sheath 2-valved, white
and membranaceous, scarcely an inch long, roundly
obtuse. Leaves erect, smooth, overtopping the flowers,
grass-like, taper-pointed, deeply channelled on the
upper side, and marked with a longitudinal white
stripe, underneath bluntly keeled, margins a little
rolled back. Flowers generally 2, clothed at the base
and nearly half way up with a white glossy membranaceous
sheath. Perianthium funnel-form, with a long,
slender, bluntly angular tube ; limb petal-like, 6-parted,
spreading, of a pure white, with a pale yellow bottom ;
segments concave, outer ones oblong-lanceolate, acute,
with 3 bright purple stripes at the back, inner ones
ovate, rounded or slightly emarginate, of a pure white,
c 2