320 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTORY. [Book XXI. 



use whatever to attempt to propagate it, the produce of a whole 

 bed of saffron being boiled down to a single scruple ; it is repro- 

 duced by offsets from the bulb. The cultivated saffron is 

 larger, finer, and better looking than the other kinds, but has 

 much less efficacy. This plant is everywhere degenerating, 14 

 and is far from prolific at Cyrenae even, a place where the 

 flowers are always of the very finest quality. The most es- 

 teemed saffron, however, is that of Cilicia, and there of Mount 

 Corycus in particular ; next comes the saffron of Mount Olym- 

 pus, in Lycia, and then of Centuripa, in Sicily ; some persons, 

 however, have given the second rank to the Phlegraean 15 saf- 

 fron. 



There is nothing so much adulterated 16 as saffron : the best 

 proof of its goodness is when it snaps under pressure by the 

 fingers, as though it were friable; 17 for when it is moist, a 

 state which it owes to being adulterated, it is limp, and will 

 not snap asunder. Another way of testing it, again, is to 

 apply it with the hand to the face, upon which, if good, it will 

 be found to be slightly caustic to the face and eyes. There is 

 a peculiar kind, too, of cultivated saffron, which is in general 

 extremely mild, being only of middling 18 quality ; the name 

 given to it is " dialeucon." 19 The saffron of Cyrenaica, again, 

 is faulty in the opposite extreme ; for it is darker than any 

 other kind, and is apt to spoil very quickly. The best saffron 

 everywhere is that which is of the most unctuous quality, and 

 the filaments of which are the shortest ; the worst being that 

 which emits a musty smell. 



Mucianus informs us that in Lycia, at the end of seven or 

 eight years, the saffron is transplanted into a piece of ground 

 which has been prepared for the purpose, and that in this way 



14 "Degenerans ubique." Judging from what he states below, he may 

 possibly mean, if grown repeatedly on the same soil. 



15 He may allude either to the city of Phlegra of Macedonia, or to the 

 Phlegrsean Plains in Campania, which were remarkable for their fertility. 

 Virgil speaks of the saffron of Mount Tmolus in Cilicia. 



16 It is very extensively adulterated with the petals of the marigold, as 

 also the Carthamus tinctorius, safflower, or bastard saffron. 



17 This is the case ; for when it is brittle it shows that it has not been 

 adulterated with water, to add to its weight. 



- 8 Perhaps the reading here, " Cum sit in medio candidum," is prefer- 

 able ; u because it is white in the middle." 

 19 " White throughout." 



