1416 



CROCUS * vernus ; var. leucorhyncus. 

 Pheasanfs Feather Crocus. 



TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. Iride^ Jussieu. (Introduction to the natural system of 

 Botany, p. 260.) 



CROCUS Linn. — Spatha plerumque bivalvis, valvula interiore multo 

 angustiore. Calyx regularis, tripartitus, petaloideus, infundibularis, laciniis 

 dorso soepius penicillatis. Corolla paulo minor, 3-partita, conformis, 

 laciniis dorso saepii^s unicoloribus. Tubus longissimus basi subterraneus. 



Stiyma profunde trifidum, laciniis convolutis. Herbse perenncs, cormosoB, 



acaules. Folia lincaria, marginibus rejiexis. Flores speciosi, albi, lutei 

 V. purpurei. 



Garden Variety. 



There is scarcely a tribe of Garden flowers that 

 abounds more with beautiful varieties than the Spring 

 Crocuses, and especially the species to which the name 

 vernal has been exclusively applied. This comprehends all 

 those the throat of whose flower is bearded with short 

 hairs ; by which character a great number of extremely dis- 

 similar forms are brought together, difl'ering in the breadth 

 and form of the segments of the calyx and corolla, and in 

 the manner in which the latter are respectively coloured, 

 but agreeing in being all either white or purple, never 

 yellow. An account of them is given by Mr. Sabine, in 

 the Transactions of the Horticultural Society, from which 

 we extract what relates to the variety before us. 



* The Saffron, xgoxaj of" the Greeks, was one of the first plants that 

 acquired a name in the earliest periods of the world. Solomon mentions it 

 as one of the sweet-smelling herbs that the garden of his bride was planted 

 with ; Homer speaks of it with the lotus and the fragrant hyacinth ; and 

 Virgil enumerates the rubcns crocus among the sweet flowers from which 

 his bees collected honey. The word is thought to have been derived from 

 K^cKn, yarn ; in allusion to the resemblance of its stigmas to threads spun 

 from wool. 



