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CHAPTER VI. 



SAFFRON: ITS HISTORY, CULTIVATION AND USES. 



S a preface to the evidence of the great antiquity of Saffron as a cultivated 

 plant, there are several facts connected with its geographical range and its 

 characters that call for special notice. 



Firstly, no wild form of Crocus sativus is precisely identical with the Saffron 

 Crocus. The latter is invariably sterile unless fertilized with the pollen of one of 



the wild forms. 



Secondly, the Saffron Crocus as a cultivated plant, or an escape from cultivation, 

 has a much' wider range than the wild forms; extending through at least 125 of 

 longitude, from Spain to Kashmir, and China, and 25 of latitude from Persia 

 to England; whereas the wild forms do not range through more than 36° of 

 longitude, and about io° of latitude. 



Thirdly, whilst the wild forms of Crocus sativus are extremely varied— so 

 varied as to have been viewed as distinct species by the earlier writers— the 

 cultivated Saffron, whether from Spain, Kashmir, or China, maintains an identity 

 of character rarely found in any other domesticated plant. 



The only possible exception is the reputed occurrence of wild Saffron ("C. 

 sativus savaugc" of Tenore, C. Orsinii of Parlatore, Plate XXIX, figs. 1 and 6) on 

 Monte de' Fiori, and one or two other places near Ascoli, Italy; which differs 

 from the cultivated Saffron in no respect excepting that the pistil is a little more 

 erect, and somewhat shorter; but as Saffron has long been grown on the flanks 

 of the Appenines, up to the height at which Orsini's Crocus was gathered, it 

 may be merely an escape from cultivation. 



Indeed the history of the origin of the Saffron Crocus is about as little known 

 as the history of the origin of wheat. 



The occurrence of words indicating the Crocus plant and the Saffron product, 

 or both in common, in numerous ancient languages affords evidence of the wide- 



