7 o THE GENUS CROCUS. 



Suetonius, in Nero, Cap. XXV, refers to the sprinkling of the streets of Rome 

 with Saffron, on Nero's return from Greece. 



Such uses of Saffron are referred to in the following passages: — 



Pulpita sollemnes non oluere crocos. Prop. IV. I. 16. 

 Et crocino nares murreus ungat onyx. Prop. III. viii. 22. 

 Hoc rogo, non melius, quam rubro pulpita nimbo 

 Spargere et effuso permaduisse croco? Mart. V. 26. 8. 



Scheller in his Latin Dictionary says that the Romans used to mix the Crocus 

 (? Saffron) with wine, with which they sprinkled the theatres and other places to 

 give them an agreeable scent; and Lord Lytton, in The Last Days of Pompeii, 

 refers to its use in the Roman Baths: — 



" She (Nydia) pays for the baths, but does not waste the Saffron." 



Hertoldt, in his Crocologia above referred to, states that the Lacedemonians 

 used Saffron for dyeing the hair by repeated washings, and the passage in Lucretius 

 ii ; 4I 6 — "et cum scena croco Cilici profusa recens est" probably referred to some 

 liquid preparation of Saffron as described in Pliny, Lib. XXI, cap 6. 17, 883. 



Randal Cotgrave's Dictionary renders the word Saffrane, as seasoned or coloured 

 with Saffron ; and Saffranier, as a seller of Saffron ; indicating that Saffron was then 

 (161 1) much more commonly used than now. Nare's Glossary has the following: 

 "To Saffron"; to stain of a yellow or Saffron colour; a term used by Drayton 

 in the early edition of his Eclogues (1593 4-to.) 



The lothlie morphew saffroned the place. 



Sign: B. 36. 



In Wits Recreations (1654) occurs: — 



Give us bacon, rinds of wallnuts, 

 Shelles of cockles, and of small nuts, 

 Ribands, bells, and saffrand linen. 



One of the uses to which Saffron was applied in the middle ages, was for 

 the manufacture of the beautiful gold colour used in the illumination of missals, 

 etc., when the actual gold was not used. This is the receipt from the work of 

 Theophilus in the eleventh century: — "If ye wish to decorate your work in some 

 manner, take tin pure and finely scraped, smelt it and wash it like gold, and 

 apply it with the same glue upon letters or other places which you wish to 

 ornament with gold or silver; and when you have polished it with a tooth, take 



