g THE GENUS CROCUS. 



known paper in the seventh volume of The Transactions of the Horticultural Society 



of London. 



The spring Crocuses, which had been described and figured by the older 

 botanists, Besler, Camerarius, Clusius, Dalechamps, Dodoens, Lobel, Sweert and 

 others, previous to, and at the commencement of the seventeenth century, were 

 collected together in 1623 by Gaspard Bauhin, in his Pinax (p.65-67). He grouped 

 the then known species and varieties into three classes, containing twenty-three 

 distinct sorts with sub-varieties, some of which cannot be easily identified. Jean 

 Bauhin also wrote on the genus about the same time. 



,62 9 .-Parkinson, in his Paradisus, p. 160, first published in 1629, desenbed 

 twenty-seven kinds of spring Crocuses. 



1671— Hertodt's Crocologia, published at Jena in 1671, is a curious book on 

 the medical virtues of Crocuses and Saffron. Chapter II. describes about twenty 

 species and varieties of Crocuses known at the time, which he classifies as Autumnal 

 and Vernal. Amongst them can be identified without doubt C. pulchellus of Herbert, 

 under the name of C. constantinopolitanus ; C. nudifiorus as C. pyrenceus flore obscuro 

 violaceo majore exultat; C. annus, and many varieties of C. vermis. 



1693.— In Samuel Gilbert's Florists Jade Mecum, seventeen Crocuses are enu- 

 merated, amongst which can be identified several varieties of C. vernus, C. aureus 

 and its varieties, and C. susianus. 



I am indebted to Mr. J. H. Krelage, of Haarlem, for much valuable information 

 respecting the Dutch literature relating to Crocuses during the seventeenth century, 

 of which the following is an abridgment. 



1 6 10.— Gaspard Pelletier in his work on the plants found and cultivated in 

 the island of Zeeland, published in 1610, refers to Crocus vernus as being found 



wild in the Netherlands. 



l6lI _ I Th. de Bry in his Florilegium Novum, Edition I. of 161 1, figures several 

 Crocuses in Plate 1. (Plate XXXIX in the edition of 1612). The figures are said 

 to have been taken from the works of Clusius, Robinus, and Valet. The same plate 

 is given in the Florilegium Renovatum, Edition of 1641, and includes several varieties 

 of°C vernus, and two yellow species, which may be C. susianus and C. sulphureus. 



1612.— Emanuel Sweert, in his Florilegium, published at Frankfort in 1612, 

 and afterwards at Amsterdam, gives two plates of Crocuses; Plate 5, vernal, and 

 Plate 6, autumnal, including probably C. biflorus, C. vernus, C sustanus, C. versicolor, 

 C aureus C. sativus, and C. serotinus. The bulbs and plants represented in the 

 Florilegium formed the collection of the German Emperor Rudolph II., and as 

 Sweert sold bulbs at Amsterdam, his Florilegium may be looked upon as the oldest 



illustrated trade catalogue. _ 



1614.— In the Hortus Floridus of Crispinus Passceus (Crispin van du las), ot 



