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Chionodoxa (From chion snow and doxa glory)

(from chion, snow, and doxa, glory; in reference to the plants flowering among the melting snows of their native habitats). ORD. Liliaceae. A small genus containing the three species here described-hardy spring-flowering bulbs. It comes near Puschkinia, with which, indeed, it is sometimes confounded. Perianth rotate, campanulate, or funnel-shaped; the equal ligulate, spreading segments in the expanded flower two or three times as long as the tube. C. Luciliae may be grown in pots, and forces well if allowed first to make good roots, by being treated like the Hyacinth. It should be kept very near the glass. Although it does remarkably well out of doors, perfection is best attained by growing it in cold pits or under handlights. All the species succeed admirably in a compost of equal parts peat, loam, and sand, also in leaf mould and sand. Propagated by offsets; or by seeds, which are produced freely, and should be sown in drills outside as soon as ripe. The young bulbs should not be disturbed for three years. C. cretica (Cretan). fl. white or pale blue; scape slender, 6in. to 10in. high, rarely more than one or two-flowered; perianth somewhat larger than that of C. nana, which this species otherwise resembles. Mountains of Crete.

C. Forbesil (Forbes's). A synonym of C. Luciliae.

C. Luciliae (Lucilia's).* fl. intense blue, shading to white in the centre, nearly 1in. across, on slender pedicels; spike usually three to six-flowered, but sometimes nearly twenty flowers are produced. Spring. l. few, narrow, erect. h. 6in. Asia Minor and Crete, 1877. This is, perhaps, one of the handsomest of spring flowers of recent introduction. SYN. C. Forbesii. (B. M. 6433.) There is also a white-flowered form.

C. nana (dwarf).* fl. white, lilac, 1/2in. across, in many-flowered umbels. Spring. L. linear, shorter than the peduncle. h. 4in. Crete, 1879. (B. M. 6453.)