THE GENUS CROCUS. 

 4° 



smelling Saffron from Persia, which it is impossible to identify. 



Mr. Krelage has in his possession a curious collection of water-colour drawings, 

 anno 1670., entitled Ad vivum colonbus pictce atque collects cava, et /adore Domini, 

 Hcnrici D'Acquet Senatoris ac consulis delfensis; in which are figured two Crocuses :- 



No. 77 Crocus vernus, .679, a bright blue crocus with red stamens over-topping the flowers, 



probably C. sativus. 

 No. 78 Crocus montanus, 1679, a pale blue species, which may be C. nudifiorus, or serotinus. 



There is also an old bound book in Mr. Krelage's possession, entitled, Plusieurs 

 espkes de flairs dessinies d' aprh le nature/, containing a large number of water- 

 colour drawings, anno 1681, for the most part painted by the members of the 

 Holsteyn family, including drawings of several forms of C. vernus, a variety of C. 

 versicolor, and C. susianiis. 



These old Dutch works, ranging from the early part to the end of the seven- 

 teenth century, are of interest, inasmuch as they indicate that at least seven or 

 eight species of Crocus, viz. vernus, sativus, nudifiorus, serotinus, biflorus, susianus, 

 and aureus and" its horticultural varieties, were generally known, and widely cultivated 

 in Holland at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The existing Dutch 

 collections are scarcely richer in species than they were two hundred and fifty years 

 ago. We are without any reliable evidence of the time at which these species were 

 first introduced to cultivation. 



I7I9 ._ Tournefort, in his Institutiones Rei Herbaria:, vol. i., p. l^o, formed a 

 list of the genus, enumerating thirty-four species and varieties. 



l73 i._Miller, in the first edition of his Gardener's Dictionary, printed in 173^ 

 gives the names as well as short descriptions of twenty spring Crocuses; which in 

 the seventh and eighth editions of the work, printed in i 7 59 and 1768 respectively, 

 he groupsjas two species and twelve varieties only. 



& I737 .^Linna3US, in his Hortus Cliffortianus, published in I737> at p. 18, separated 

 the autumnal from the vernal Crocuses; but both in the first edition, 17 53, and 

 the later edition, 1762, of his Species Plantarum, he placed the autumnal or Saffron 

 Crocus and the vernal Crocus as varieties, under the name of C. officinalis and 

 C. vernus of his sole species, C. sativus, all the spring species, including the yellow 

 flowering species, being placed together under the name of C. vernus. 



1 77 1. —Richard Weston, in his Universal Botanist, compiled a list of Crocuses, 

 forty of which appear to be varieties of C. vermis. 



I79I ._Willdenow, in the Species Plantarum, (edition of 1797,) recognised the 

 autumnal and vernal species as distinct; but, like Linnaeus, he considered all the 

 vernal Crocuses as referable to a single species. 



Most of these earlier writings on the genus are of little scientific value, inas- 



