276 .. JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
they yield resemble absolutely the parents ; no variation whatever. Can 
this fixity be attributed to the fact that for ages the plant has always 
been exclusively multiplied by means of bulblets? To break up this 
stability it was necessary to introduce hybridisation. ‘To this end I 
collected in the living state the greater part of the known species of 
Crocus, about fifty, without counting the varieties—the Saffron is a 
Crocus: Crocus sativus. Among these species there are some which 
have a certain analogy with our Saffron, principally as regards the 
stigma—for instance, C. odorus longiflorus, Thomasu, Paillasianus, 
Hlwesii, Corsicus, medius, &e. 
All attempts at fertilisation by means of the pollen of these 
various species failed to yield any results. Finally, in 1862, I received 
from M. Heldreich, professor at Athens, an original plant from the 
island of Syra, of Crocus grecus (Cartwrightianus, Herb.?) which 
supplied my need. The pollen of this grecus easily fertilised our 
sativus (saffron), and I obtained almost as much seed as I wished for, the 
sowings of which, aided by selection and a little chance, have given me 
very numerous varieties. Some of these have been described, and even 
figured, for instance, in a note by M. Duchartre, Journal of the 
Société @ Horticulture of France, 1879, p. 171; and in the remarkable 
work of Mr. G. Maw, A Monograph of the Genus Crocus, pp. 58 and 74. 
The most recently obtained of these varieties merits special mention. 
This is what I wrote on the subject in the Bulletin de la Société 
d’Acclimatation: “The bulb of this hybrid, to judge by its small size, 
would not have strength to flower, at the utmost I might have expected 
a solitary flower or three stigmas, but instead of three it carries nearly 
thirty. Furthermore, this mania (affolement) for stigmatisation seems 
to pervade all its organs. In the first place, the pseudo-leaves, forming 
the sheath which envelops the leaves properly so called, have a saffron 
tint; then several of the leaves, and even the floral bracts, and some- 
times the anthers, are surmounted by a portion of stigma clearly 
characterised, the stem of which is furnished with stigmatic papille. 
The botanists who examined this hybrid at the Chrysanthemum 
Exhibition of the Société d’Horticulture in 1896, found it very inter- 
esting. None of them knows of a case of transformation of bracts 
and leaves into stigmas. But the teratological phenomenon has less 
interest for me than the practical and agricultural side. Horticulturists 
strive to change stamens and pistils into petals and sepals, in order to 
obtain double or full flowers. I work in an entirely opposite direction. 
I try to transform the floral organs into stigmas, and I have even gone 
beyond this, since this stigmatic proliferation invades even the sheaths, 
the bracts, and the leaves. 
“Thirty stigmas instead of three! Nay, even leaves changed into 
stigmas. . Here is something for Saffron cultivators to dream about. 
Some of them may go the length of imagining that he may reap the 
stigma-bearing leaves of his Saffron bed, as he would his cornfield, but we 
are not quite at that point yet. In fact, 1 must warn the Saffron-growers 
that these stigmas are not yet perfect. At first they are a little thin—it 
is true that their number, thirty instead of three, compensates, and far 
more, for their lesser thickness. But they have one serious defect, 
