SAFFRON: ITS HISTORY, CULTIVATION AND USES. 61 



Spenser wrote of it as 



"Saffron sought for in Cilician soyle"; 

 and Brown, as 



"Saffron confected in Cilicia." Bril. Pas/. 1,2. 



These references are probably derived from Pliny. 



According to Chappellier, Saffron has given its name to Zafaranboli "Ville 

 situee pres Inobole (? Inebole or Boli) en Anatolie au sud-est de 1' anciene 

 Heraclee." 



Persia has long been celebrated for its Saffron; Royle states that it has been 

 cultivated there as an article for export. Meyer's Geschichte der Botanik, Vol. Ill, 

 p. 283, contains references to its cultivation there in the early middle ages, collected 

 from the Book of Lands of the Persian Abu Ishag Alfarsi noticing the places in 

 Persia, where Saffron was grown. It was also anciently cultivated at Holwan in 

 the Territory of Babylon and in the vicinity of Aleppo. 



It is largely cultivated in many parts of Europe: — in France, in the arrondisse- 

 ment of Pithiviers; in the Gatinais Seine-et-Marne, Beaumont and Puiseaux; also 

 in the Department of Vaucluse, especially around Carpentras. 



In the early part of the seventeenth century it was cultivated in sufficient 

 quantities in Zeeland to render its importation from England unnecessary. 



The cultivation of Saffron in Spain by the Saracens in the middle ages is 

 referred to in the Book of Agriculture by Jbn el Awwam (CXXII, § 4, Arabic text 

 and Spanish Translation by Banqueri, Madrid, 1802. French Translation by Clement 

 Mullet, Paris, 1864), who gives directions for its culture in a reference to the 

 Nabathean writings on agriculture. 



In Spain it is still grown in the Provinces of Aragon, New Castile, and 

 Murcia, and in the district of la Mancha. 



Saffron is cultivated in some parts of Austria; and it is reputed that one Stephen 

 von Hausen, a native of Nuremberg, who accompanied the Imperial Ambassador 

 to Constantinople about the year 1579, brought the first bulbs to Vienna from 

 the neighbourhood of Belgrade. It is naturalized as the remnant of ancient 

 cultivation in the vineyards, and dry grassy places at Ozlar (or Orlar) near Botzen, 

 in the Tyrol, and is said to have given its name to Zaffarano, a village in Sicily, 

 near Mount Etna. It has long been grown in the Abruzzi, and Holinshed (Chronicles 

 0/ England, Book III, Chap. 8), in the sixteenth century referred to Aquila as 

 being then the greatest mart for Saffron there. The following particulars of its 

 present culture are derived from a Paper read by Mr. H. Groves, of Florence, 

 at the Pharmaceutical Conference at Bristol. 



