As foon as the roots begin to fhoot GpwarJs, there 

 are commonly two or three large tap-roots lent forth 

 from the fide of the old root, which will run down- 

 light two inches and a half or more, into the ground ; 

 at the place where thefe bulbs firft come out from the 

 old one, will be formed a bulb fometimes (though 

 not always, as you will hearprefently ;) and this tap- 

 root decays. The bulb will increafe in its bignefs, 

 till at laft it quite falls off, and is then left entire, 

 which commonly happens in April, when the green 

 begins to decay -, but many times thefe tap or car- 

 rotty roots never produce any bulbs, but always re- 

 tain the fame figure, and forever after, I believe are 

 barren i for I planted a parcel of thefe carrotty roots 

 four years ago in a little bed, where they have ever 

 fince remained, but have not produced one fingle 

 flower, notwithftanding they have produced a nu- 

 merous offspring of the fame carrotty roots. 

 And the people about Saffron Walden are well ap- 

 prifed of this barrennefs, and therefore throw away 

 all fuch roots when they make a new plantation ; but 

 as this change of the root is not peculiar to the Saf- 

 fron only, permit me to digrefs a little, to give you 

 fome account of this matter. 



In the parilh of Fulham, near London, the garden- 

 ers ufed to drive a great trade in the Jonquil, orNar- 

 ciflus juncifolius, flore multiplici, at wliich place the 

 greateft quantity of thofe roots was raifed for fale, 

 as perhaps was in any part of England, and turned 

 to as great account for the mafter, as any crop they 

 could employ their ground in, till of late years, that 

 moft of their roots have turned carrotty, and fo 

 proved barren, or have produced only fingle flowers ; 

 fo that the gardeners being hereby difheartened, have 

 thrown them, out entirely, neglefting to cultivate 

 them, fatisfying themfelves with this reafon, that 

 their ground was tired with them. 

 But to return to the Crocus.- - Befides thofc roots al- 

 ready mentioned^ dbcre^ wiUte^ A^^ or fouj fmall 

 [ bulbs formed upon'thc upper part of the root, and 

 ^^'fomeunderneatni which from the firft appearance 



. afllime thq round Q>^e of its parent root, and have 

 ! , no tap-root iJelonging to them ; thofe on the upper 

 '^ part of the root rarely emit fo much as a fibre, but 

 ^.j^eceive their nourifhment immediately from the old 

 root -, but thofe on the under fide fend out many fi- 

 . bres all around, by which they draw their nourilhment 

 from the ground ; thefe being parted from the old 

 root much fooner than the other, fl:and in need of fit 

 organs for receiving their nourifliment. 

 I have fometimes taken up fome, through the middle 

 . of which hath been a root of the Gramen caninum, 

 or Couch Grafs, which fome people have imagined 

 . had ftrength enough to force its way through the Cro- 

 * cus root ; but the truth is, the root of the Grafs 

 clofely adhering to the old ro9t of the Crocus, juft 

 at the place where the young roots were emitted, thefe 

 young roots being quick of growth, inclofed the 

 ^ root of the Grafs, and thifs I have feen feveral roots 

 run through each other in the fame manner. 

 But befides thefe offsets mentioned, direftly upon the 

 vppcr part of the root is one large root formed, of 

 equal bignefs with the old one, and this is the time 

 that the root is Radix gemina, as Tournefort calls it ; 

 ^ for they are not fo at any other feafon, and therefore 

 . I think it a very improper appellation j for when the 

 new roots are perfedtly formed, the old ones, with 

 their coats, fall off" and die, and leave the new roots 

 all fingle. This has occafioned feveral people to 

 doubt of what Tournefort had faid of the roots, till 

 I took up fome plants at that feafon, and with them 

 the two roots of equal bignefs, i, e. the old at the bot- 

 tom, and the new one at the top. 

 Dr. Blair alfo happening, in viewing a root, to be 

 furprifed widi a different appearance from what he had 

 feen before. or heard of, fent me another letter. 

 The manner of the root was thus ; from the upper 

 part of the bulb, where it fends forth all the leaves 

 within a common tunicle, at the exit there was an ap- 

 pendix abput an inch and a half long, about the groff- 



+ 4 



C R O 



nefs of a large turkey or goofe-quill, cylindrical anj 

 blunt, without the lead radical fibre, by "which ic 

 might receive the nourilhment, finooth or poliflicd, 

 and bluifli in the furface, confifting of feveral circular 

 lines, when cut tranfverfly ; white, with a hard 

 greenifh center like a Carrot, when it hath pufhcd 

 forth the flowering-ftem, not unlike the ilolones of 

 of fome running root, fuch as the Mints below ground, 

 only the extremity defcended obliquely, inftead of al- 

 cending, to fend forth leaves to produce a new plant; 

 and what is moft remarkable, this ^id not happen to 

 one or two plants, but to the whole bundle, which 

 were above twenty diftinft roots, differing in nothincr 

 but majus and minus-, the bulb leemed at the fame 

 time to be pined and emaciated, though it emitted 

 large radical fibres like thofe of a Leak, 



I having received this account from him by letter, 

 fent him the following anfwer : ^ 

 I received yours in anfwer to my laft, with the figure 

 of the roots of fome fets of Crocus Autumnalis you 

 have taken out of the ground j I have found a figure 

 in Dodon^us which correfponds with it, and thofe 

 roots are no new thing v/ith the Saffron gardeners, 

 who always throw thein away when they make frelh 

 plantations. 



Your figure does not agree with my tap-roots, as 

 you w^ill fee by the figure takeii as juft from the life 

 as I could. In mine you will find the bulb turned^ 

 fideways, which I, ftill find to be conftant in all the 

 roots I have examined, which have been a great many^. 

 and makes me fufpeft thefe tap-roots are occafioned 

 by the accidental pofition of the roots in planting, 

 which may retard the afcending fap, the flowering- 

 ftem being thereby turned into a crooked figure, 

 and the tap-roots are full of longitudinal veffels, of 

 a confiderable dimenfion ; fo that the greater attraft- 

 ing power of the fap being hereby diverted down- 

 wards, the flower-ftem may be cjuite deftitute of pro- 

 per nourifhment. 





The method you propofe to remedy this inconveni- 

 ency, will not do, for I have removed fome of thefe 

 roots at the feafon when the tap-roots were forming, 

 and this alone deftroyed them all ; fo that I am per- 

 fuaded, the Cutting them off entirely will kill them. 

 The method I ufed with the Jonquils was, to lay 

 fome tiles juft under the roots, to prevent their run- 

 ning downwards, but this has not anfwered, nor do I 

 think it poffible wholly to recover them ; for the al- 

 teration is not only in the root and flower, but alfc> 

 in the leaf and blade, which before was fiftulous, but 

 after this alteration in the root, becomes a plain ful- 

 cated leaf, and if it ever bloffoms after, the flowers 

 are large ai!d fingle, which before were fmall and 

 double i but the Saffron, after the change of its roots, 

 produces a fmall narrow blade, feldom half the length 

 of thofe in a natural ftate. '■ , . - , 



' - ■ 



Upon this Dr. Blair formed this conclufion : 



Thefe additional obfervations plainly ftiew, that nei* 



ther the carrotty root, nor the blafted tap-root,, as I 



I may call it, are merely accidental, or what may be 

 called lufus nature, but certain difeafes incident to 

 fuch roots J for were they accidental, they would not 

 have the fame appearances to different perfons in dif- 

 ferent foils and climates, nor would fa many taken 

 up together have fuch arefemblance toeach other, as. 

 I have twice obferved. > 



CROTOLARIA. Lin. Gen. Plant. 771. Dill.Elth. 

 122. Tourn. Inft. R. H. 644. [ofKporxXov, Gr. rat- 

 tle ; becaufe its feeds in the pods, when ripe, make 

 a rattling noife when ftiaken, or becaufe the infants 

 of the Indians make ufe of the branches of this plant 

 furniftied with pods inftead of rattles.] 



The Characters are, 



^he empalement of the flower is divided into three large 



fegments \ the two upper refting on the ftandardy tke 



lower is concave^ trifid^ and is fituated below the keel. 



jThe flower is of the Butterfly kind^ the ftandard is large ^ 



; beart-fhaped and pointed ; the wings are oval and half 



\ ^h.h^g^b of the ftandardy the keel is pointed and as long 



. as the wings ; it hath tenflamina wf^ich are united^ ter- 



minatcl 



