SAFFRON. 



IRIDACE.E. Crocus Sativus. 



is little plant is perennial, having a rounded and some- 

 what flattened bulb root, from which the flower rises a 

 little above the ground upon a long, slender, and tender 

 tube. The flower is of several colors, in some places 

 orange-yellow, bluish, and purple. Those that we saw 

 growing wild in the Holy Land were of the former kind and 

 were found upon Mount Tabor. A beautiful specimen in our 

 possession still retains the yellow color it had when first 

 gathered. The saffron of commerce is obtained from the stig- 



D 



mas or summits of the pistils, which, with a part of the stem or 

 style, are gathered together, sometimes in masses, and dried in 

 the sun or by artificial heat. The finest is dried loosely; and 

 five pounds of the freshly-gathered stigmas are reduced to only 

 one pound when dried. As the stigmas are always of the 

 same rich orange tint, the color of the saifron will be the same 

 whatever may be that of the flower from which it is gathered. 

 It is a native of Greece and Asia Minor, and has been culti 

 vated in those countries from the earliest ages. The plants 

 now found in Palestine are not very odorous; but plants of 

 the same inodorous variety become delicately fragrant after 

 cultivation; and those which possess fragrance owe that pro 

 perty to an exhalation from the stigmas. These are threefold 



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