ctAss m, oMffR I.] CROCUS. 39 



GENUS III. CROCUS. Crocus. 

 Nat. Old. Irid'e^. 



Gen. Char. Perianth divided into six equal coloured segments, its 

 tube longer than the limb, and enveloped in two or more membra- 

 nous sheaths. Stigma three-lobed, dilated, folded, and variously 

 cut or jagged at the extremity. — The derivation of the word Cro- 

 cus is variously given by authors ; h^oko^ of Theophrastus. Some 

 derive it from Coriscus, a city and mountain of Silesia, and others 

 from K^ox.i';, or x.^oiin, a thread or filament; from the appearance of 

 the saffron of commerce, which is the dried stigmas of C. sativus. 



1. C. sati'ims, Linn. (Fig. 54.) Saffron Crocus. Stigma in three deep 

 linear notched lobes, drooping and protruding between the seg- 

 ments of the corolla. 



English Flora, vol. i. p. 46. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 255. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 24. — C. autumna'lis, English Botany, t. 343. 



Bulbs solid, depressed, enveloped in thin brown reticulated fibro- 

 membranous coats. Leaves linear radical, longer than the flower, and 

 enveloped at the base with a thin white membranous sheath, dark green 

 above, with a white stripe running along the middle, paler beneath. 

 Flower of a lilac or violet colour. Stamens shorter than the corolla, 

 bat the style about the same length. The stigma of a rich orange 

 colour, odorous. 



Habitat. — In meadows in Cambridgeshire and Essex, probably na- 

 turalised. 



Perennial ; flowering in September. 



The stigma of this species is alone fragrant, and is the saffron of the 

 shops, for the purpose of procuring which, the plant is extensively cul- 

 tivated at Saffron-Walden and Stapleford, Essex. The flowers are ga- 

 thered early in the morning, and the stigmas, with a portion of the style, 

 carefully picked out of the flowers; they are then dried upon a kiln, 

 under a pressure, to form cake saffron, — or loosely, which is then called 

 hai/ saffron. The virtue of saffron appears to reside in a peculiar ex- 

 tractive principle called " polychroite." Saffron was considered by the 

 ancients as a remedy of great efficacy, but in modern practice it is 

 found to possess few sensible qualities, beyond the orange colour which 

 it imparts to water, alcohol, &c. 



2. C, ver'nus, Willd. (Fig. 55.) purple Spring Crocus. Stigma erect 

 within the flower, divided into three jagged wedge-shaped lobes ; 

 mouth of the tube of the corolla hairy. 



English Botany, t. 344. — English Flora, vol, i. p. 46. — Lindley, Sy- 

 nopsis, p. 255. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 24. 



Distinguished from the last species by its shorter and broader leaves, 

 the erect pale inodorous stigma remaining within the flower, its wedge- 

 shaped segments, and the tube of the corolla thickly set at its mouth 

 with pellucid hairs. Their times of floM ering are also different. 



