212 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



A little of ground 



Brings Saffron a pound. 



Saffron Walden in Essex and Saffron Hill in 

 London received their names because of the quantity 

 of saffron crocus grown in those places. 



The saffron crocus is a handsome flower, but some- 

 what capricious. Dr. Forbes Watson writes: 



"We look at the few well selected flowers in our 

 hand and let our mind wander in the depths of those 

 fair-striped cups, their color so fresh, so cool, so 

 delicate, and yet not too cool, with that central yel- 

 low stamen-column and the stigma emerging from it 

 like a fiery orange lump. The Purple Crocus, partly 

 from the full materials for color-contrast afforded 

 by its interior, partly from the exceeding delicacy 

 of tint, the lilac stripes and markings, the trans- 

 parent veins and the pale watery lake which lies at 

 the bottom of the cup, seem to bear us away to some 

 enchanted spot, a fairy-land of color where no 

 shadow ever falls a land of dim eternal twilight 

 and never fading flowers. Note, too, the differences 

 between the Crocuses with regard to the stigma. In 

 the Purple Crocus, where it is needed to complete 

 the harmony of the flower, it rises long and flame- 

 tipped out of the tall bundle of yellow stamens. 

 Notice also the curve of the outside of the Purple 



