CROCUS AND EARLY SPRING FLOWERS 39 



" beware of excess of love." But it is more than 

 as a cordial for the heart that N. Culpeper 

 regards saffron : "It quickens the brain," he 

 says, " for the Sun is exalted in Aries, as well as 

 he hath his house in the Dragon head, it helps 

 the Consumption of the Lungs and difficulty of 

 breathing, it is an excellent thing in epedemcal 

 diseases, as Pestillence, Small Pox, and Measles ; it 

 is an excellent expulsive medicine and a notable 

 remedy for the Yellow Jaundice." More than this 

 can hardly be asked of one plant. After it the 

 humble snowdrop is a mere nobody. 



The snowdrop may, with justice, be called 

 humble, certainly it has a much better right to 

 the title than the violet. Gerard, by the way, 

 speaks of it as a "bulbous violet," though there 

 seems little resemblance between them, except the 

 ascribed qualities of humility and retirement, which 

 are entirely undeserved in one case. Violets like 

 sunshine, a good position, and fat living, and, 

 though the leaves hide the flowers in some 

 varieties, it is of those that the scent is strongest 

 and most betraying. It is not the fault of the 

 plant if it is suffered to "blush unseen." But 

 snowdrops really do like retirement and poor 

 ground. In Holland they decline entirely to 



