the summits of Milo and Thermia are of schistous marble, it 
may be conjectured that those of Crete and Gargarus are 
similar, from the Croci they produce. 
In confirmation of the report concerning the yellow Crocus 
of .the mountains near Damascus, I have long observed the 
avidity of mice to scratch up and eat C. luteus and lagenz- 
florus aureus, and the remarkable fact, that all the lagenz- 
flori, when dug up wild, are found five or six inches deep 
underground as if for protection, and that the mice never touch 
any other Crocus in the garden. I tried to roast C. luteus, 
and found it as hard as a stone; boiled for three-quarters of 
an hour or more, it became a soft pulp, of which the flavour 
was insufficient, but not unpleasant. On becoming cold it 
hardened, so that it might be pounded or ground for culinary 
purposes, and with some seasoning might be palatable, but 
from its setting hard after being boiled, it would probably be 
not easily digested. It is a remarkable fact, that although the 
Croci of different. localities are little distinguished from each 
other by casual observers, they refuse to intermix, and I have 
failed in every attempt to cross C. vernus (which produces 
seedlings at Spofforth so abundantly as to be troublesome) 
with any other Crocus, and I have equally failed with every 
other species, (unless perhaps in obtaining seed between 
Versicolor, Imperatonianus, and insularis, which are peculiarly 
allied) although most, except the sorts long cultivated by off- 
sets, make seed pretty freely. It will not be found that the 
genus is subdivided unnecessarily. 
Any vendor of bulbs can readily distinguish the bulbs of 
the common yellow, the vernal, the cloth of gold, the saffron, 
and that called Scotch Crocus, by their outer coat; and other 
species are so distinguishable, though often more easily by the 
eye than by a written description; but besides that apparent 
diversity, there is a great difference as to the part of the corm 
or kernel into which the several coats, or remaining bases of 
the last year's leaves and leaf-sheaths, are inserted, which is 
not so easily ascertained ; and also of the particular zone, 
between the lines of insertion, from which the root-fibres 
spring; and it is in fact more easy to ascertain the species 
from a dry bulb than from a leaf or flower. 
