CROCUS SATIVUS. ,6 9 



fimbriata, 2 poll. (0.050 metr.) longa, antheras multo saepius; etiam segmentis, superantia. Planta 

 culta nunquam sementat. Semina formarum ferarum affinium, ferme sphaerica, obscure rubra. 



Com large, with a flat base, and vertical sides, from an inch (0.025 metre) to an inch and a quarter 

 (0.032 metre) broad and one inch (0.025 metre) high. Tunic of fine silky reticulated fibre, produced 

 at the summit into a bunch of fibres, from one inch (0.0025 metre) to two inches (0.050 metre) 

 in height. Basal Tunic of fine, radiating unbranched fibres. 



Sheathing Leaves four or five, from an inch (0.025 metre) to five inches (0.125 metre) in length, generally 

 reaching to, or exceeding the proper spathe. 



Proper Leaves six or eight, appearing with the flowers and produced in the spring to a length of 

 fifteen or eighteen inches (0.375 metre), one-twelfth of an inch (0.0021 metre) broad, the keel 

 about half the width of the blade, the margins of keel and blade ciliated, the lateral channels 

 narrow, the reflected margins of the blade nearly meeting the margins of the keel. 



Basal Spathe from two, to two and a half inches (0.050 — 0.063 metre) long, much exceeding the ovary. 

 Proper Spathe diphyllous, from three to four inches (0.075—0.100 metre) in length, reaching to the 

 level of the sheathing leaves. 



Perianth: Tube about four inches (0.100 metre) in length from the ovary to the throat. Throat purple, 

 bearded. Segments two inches (0.050 metre) long, and three-quarters of an inch (o.oiq metre) broad, 

 bright lilac, purple towards the throat, and suffused throughout with purple veins. 



Stamens nearly an inch (0.025 metre) high, much shorter than the pistil. The Anthers yellow, half an 

 inch (0.013 metre) in height, a little longer than the white or purple Filament. Pollen Grains orange, 

 of irregular form and size, varying from ^ to ^ of an inch (0.00006—0.00008 metre) in diameter. 



Pistil much exceeding the stamens, from an inch and a quarter (0.032 metre) to two inches (0.050 metre) 

 in height; the Style dividing at the level of the base or at the middle of the anthers, and produced 

 into almost entire scarlet stigmata, which in the cultivated Saffron are lax and drooping. 



Scape at the flowering-time about three-quarters of an inch (0.019 metre) in height, each set of sheathing- 

 leaves containing one or more scapes. 



Capsule effete or absent in the cultivated Saffron; in the wild forms from three-quarters of an inch (0.019 

 metre) to an inch (0.025 metre) in length and a third of an inch (0.0084 metre) broad. 



Seed absent in the cultivated Saffron; in the wild forms about an eighth of an inch (0.0032 metre) in 

 diameter, nearly spherical, madder-brown in colour; the prominent raphe, chalaza and caruncle of 

 the same colour as the body of the seed. 



Though naturalized in several parts of Europe and Western Asia the type 

 form, or the Saffron of cultivation, is not known to occur in a wild state. As I 

 have treated of Saffron under a separate chapter 1 here describe only the several 

 wild forms. 



I group as varieties of Crocus sativus several Crocuses which previous writers 

 deal with as separate species. Crocus cashmerianus, of Royle, which I have flowered 

 from corms obtained by the late Mr. Isaac Anderson-Henry, from Cashmere, is 

 precisely^identical with the cultivated Saffron and is probably an escape from cul- 

 tivation. 



Var. 1. Orsinii. — Of the wild forms, C. Orsinii, of Parlatore, most nearly resembles 



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