IRIDACE.®. 149 
I have seen no British specimens of the plant, but have described it 
from cultivated specimens grown from a root which was sent me by 
M. Lenormand from the south of France. 
Tuberous Iris. 
French, Iris tubéreuz. 
GENUS V.—CROCUS. Tournef. 
Perianth regular, petaloid; tube very long, straight, and extending 
much beyond the ovary; limb 6-partite; segments all nearly similar, 
incurved or recurved. Stamens 3, inserted on the base of the external 
segments of the perianth; filaments filiform; anthers affixed by the 
base. Ovary adhering to the base of the perianth tube, ovoid, bluntly 
trigonous, white; style very long, filiform; stigmas 3, wedgeshaped, 
fleshy, denticulate or cut at the apex. Capsule of the consistence of 
parchment, fusiform-trigonous, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds few, 
globose, with a somewhat fleshy testa. 
Herbs with equal-based corms covered by an envelope of parallel 
or interlacing fibres or more rarely splitting into transverse rings. 
Leaves all radical, linear, often revolute, channelled above, keeled 
beneath, with a white stripe on the upper side. Flowers large, showy, 
enclosed in a convolute membranous spathe; the ovary remaining 
underground till after the time of flowering. 
The derivation of the name of this genus of plants is from the Greek words kpdxo¢ 
or kpoxoy, saffron; or kpéxn, the thread called woof or weft in weaving, because the 
stigmata are like threads for ornamental weaving. 
SPECIES I—CROCUS BIFLORUS. Miller. 
Pirate MCCCCXCVILI. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. IX. Tab. CCCLVI. Fig. 788. 
Billot, Fl. Gall. et Germ. Exsice. No. 2373. 
C. minimus, Hook. & Arn. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 442 (non D.C.). 
C. precox, Haworth, in Engl. Bot. Suppl. No. 2645. 
C. reticulatus, Sm. Engl. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 262 (non M. Bieb.). 
Corm not stoloniferous, clothed with thick shining leathery coats 
which split transversely into rings towards the base, and under pressure 
separate into triangular plates at the apex, but have no fibrous struc- 
ture. Leaves produced at the end of winter before the flowers, very 
narrowly linear, with parallel sides and strongly revolute margins. 
Spathe 2-valved; the valves subequal, acute, scarious. Flowers 1 to 3 
(usually 2), appearing in early spring. Perianth segments when 
