IRIDACER. 153 
The eastern name of the Crocus is still “ Zahfaran,”’ of which our word saffron 
seems to be a corruption. 
The quantity of saffron grown in England is now but small. In Cambridgeshire 
and Essex there are crops occasionally to be seen. The flowers are gathered in the 
morning, when they are quite open, and the stigmas picked out and dried between 
papers in a kiln. It was formerly made into cakes, and dried under pressure, but 
this plan is rarely followed, and what is sold as cake saffron is really composed 
of safflower. Large quantities are imported from France and Spain. 
SPECIES III—CROCUS VERNUS. All. 
Prats MCCCCXCIX. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. IX. Tab. CCCLV. 
Billot, Fl. Gall. et Germ. Exsice. No. 1335. 
Corm not stoloniferous, clothed with thin membranous coats not 
splitting transversely, but containing numerous slender anastomosing 
capillary fibres. Leaves produced in spring with the flowers, broadly 
linear, widest in the middle and tapering towards the end, with 
slightly revolute margins. Spathe 1-valved, scarious, obliquely ob- 
tuse. Flowers 1 or 2, appearing in spring. Perianth segments when 
closed oblanceolate-ovoid, much shorter than the tube; the throat 
purple or white, with a circle of hairs between the bases of the 
stamens. Stamens two-thirds the length of the perianth segments. 
Stigma equalling the stamens, deeply 3-cleft, with the divisions wedge- 
shaped-obdeltoid, channelled, truncate and deeply crenate at the apex. 
Completely naturalised in meadows in several places in England. 
Very abundant in Nottingham Meadows, where it has been long 
known to occur; also at Mendham on the confines of Norfolk and 
Suffolk, and at Hornsey, Middlesex. In many other places it has been 
noticed, but only as the outcast of gardens. In Ireland it is plentiful 
near the Old Castle, Dunganstown, Wicklow. 
England, Ireland. Perennial. Spring. 
Corm more depressed than in the two preceding, flowering when 
about the diameter of a fourpenny piece, clothed with brown coats 
which are remarkable for their slender reticulated fibres. Sheaths at 
the base of the stem scarious. Leaves short at the time of flowering, 
lengthening afterwards, and ultimately attaining the breadth of + to % 
inch in the middle, with a rather broad white line down the centre. 
Perianth segments 14 to 2 inches long, rather pale purple, darker 
towards the base, varying to white. Anthers bright yellow. Stigmas 
orange, much broader and more distinctly crenate than in the two 
preceding species. Capsule about } inch long. Seeds pale red, about 
the size of white mustard seed. 
VOL. 1X. x 
