• -''^-^"o^ 



feG[it©riei]. 



In an incautious moment the editor of this journal 

 selected a clippino^ regarding saffron from Indian Planting 

 and Gardening, and reprinted it without stopping to 

 investigate its accuracy. Our contemparary so rarely 

 makes an error that we have grown accustomed to take 

 its statements without question ; but in this instance it 

 was misplaced confidence. Almost as soon as the maga- 

 zine was issued, we began to hear from it. From the 

 Atlantic tothe Pacific and even from the islands of the sea, 

 college professors, druggists, business men, botanists and 

 fiower-lovers rose up to insist that saffron is not the 

 pollen of the crocus, but the stigmas and part of the styles. 

 Mr. O, W. Barrett's letter is a fair sample, He says : 



"The note re saffron in the July issue is a fair sample 

 of what the Spaniards call "equivocacion," that is, telling- 

 half a truth at the expense of the other half. Now, in the 

 first place, saffron is the dried stigmas oi Crocus sativus, 

 a very old plant cultivated in southern Asia ; this is im- 

 ported as "hay saffron" and made into medicinal prepara- 

 tions and confectionery colors. Four thousand flowers 

 yield one ounce. But the more common saffron of the 

 dyer is the dried florets of the "safHower," or saffron, 

 [Carthamus tinctorius) a plant cultivated from China to 

 Egypt and, even in Watt's "Dictionary of the Economic 

 Products of India," known as "American Saffron," So 

 when we are in America let us alwaj^s think of Carthamus, 

 the yellow thistle-like plant of our grandmother's garden, 

 when we hear of "saffron." Needless to say, both of these 

 old saffrons are being put out of business by that avid 

 enemy of all good d^-e-plants — aniline." 



This incident has se\'eral interesting features. It 

 shows that our readers are well posted on botanical sub- 

 jects and at this we are not surprised ; that this journal is 

 closely read, at which we are much pleased ; and that out" 



