2752
CROCUS speciosus.
Showy Autumnal Crocus.
T R IA N D R IA Monogynia,
Gen. Char. Cor. in 6 divisions, regular. Stigmas
convoluted.
Spec. Char. Stigma erect, in three deeply laciniated
segments, longer than the stamens; flowers earlier
than the leaves.
Syn. Crocus speciosus. " Marsch. Casp. 129. App.
w.4.” Bieberst. FI. Taur.-Caucasic. 27. Ejusd.
“ Cent. PL Rem. Ross. v.2. t.71.” Rcem. 8f Sch.
Syst. Veget. v. 1. Mant. 277.
L o n g since naturalized in a meadow near Warrington;
our specimen, with leaves, was gathered there in Maich
1831. The flowers appear in September.
Although this Crocus is generally believed to be but a
variety of C. nudiflorus, a figure will perhaps be acceptable
to the majority of our readers. It is only in the relative
length of the style that we find any mark by which to distinguish
i t : the bulbs send out long scaly runners, and the
coating (or remains of the sheathing bases of the leaves of
a former season,) has numerous parallel ribs ; the leaves
have a flattened keel with blunt angles, and have two ribs
on each side of the keel, exactly as in C. nudiflorus. The
coating of the bulbs, being the mere exuvice in a state of