MEADOW SAFFRON. 379 



month of April. By the end of jVIay they are 

 generally ripe, and the leaves then wither and the 

 root decays, having finished its duties not only by 

 its oviparous nature, but by having at the same 

 time given birth and nourishment to a new bulb in 

 the earth by its viviparous powers. The new bulbs 

 take their rise from the caudex at the base of the 

 flower-tube, and are united by communicating ves- 

 sels to the old bulb, from the juices of which the 

 new bulbs extract their nutriment, until the parent- 

 bulb decays, as is the case in the Tulip. The 

 Colchicum has generally perfected its new bulb by 

 the middle of May ; and as no exhaustion has then 

 taken place in forming either flowers or foliage, it 

 is natural to suppose that the bulb must be then 

 possessed of the most powerful medicinal properties. 



It was formerly supposed that this plant pro- 

 duced its seed before its flowers, and for want of 

 investigation this error gained general belief 3 but 

 as a knowledge of botany became more generally 

 known, the impossibility of such a circumstance was 

 seen, and the natural history of the Colchicum was 

 then developed. 



The bulb sends up a flower in September similar 

 in appearance to the Purple Crocus, excepting 

 that it is quite destitute of foliage ; and hence our 

 peasantry name it the Naked Lady. The flower 

 is monopetalous, the six deeply-divided segments 



