MEADOW SAFFRON. 135 



subterranean, and those who would desire to see the plant 

 in its entirety will need to gather it with due care. The 

 long-, slender, almost thread-like styles that run the whole 

 length of the floral tube are an interesting feature that a 

 hasty gathering of the flowers is very likely to destroy. The 

 general habit of the plant suggests the crocus, but the 

 organs of reproduction differ considerably from those of 

 that genus, and amply warrant its removal from it. The 

 Crocus nudiforus, or naked crocus, so called from its 

 blossoms being thrown up from the ground in autumn, 

 after the leaves have withered, furnished Paley, in his 

 " Natural Theology/' with a good illustration of what he 

 terms compensation. As all he says is equally true of the 

 present plant, we may be forgiven a quotation. He writes : 

 "I have pitied this poor plant a thousand times. Its 

 blossom rises out of the ground in the most forlorn con- 

 dition possible, without a calyx, or even a leaf, to defend 

 it ; and that, not in the spring, not to be visited by summer 

 suns, but under all the disadvantages of the declining year. 

 When we come, however, to look more closely into the struc- 

 ture of this plant, we find that instead of its being 

 neglected, Nature has gone out of her course to provide for 

 its security, and to make up to it for all its defects. As 

 this plant blossoms late in the year, and probably would 

 not have time to ripen its seeds before the access of winter, 

 which would destroy them, Providence has contrived its 

 structure such that this important office may be performed 

 at a depth in the earth out of reach of the usual effects of 

 frost. The maturation of the seed, which in other plants 

 is exposed with the rest of the flowers to the open air, is 

 here carried on during the whole winter within the heart, 

 as we may say, of the earth." 



