Spring Crocuses 



question I am asked so frequently I have sometimes 

 thought of having a short reply form printed to hand or 

 post to the inquirers. It should state that a Colchicum 

 belongs to the Lily family, and shows it by having six 

 stamens, while Crocus, as an Irid, has only three. 



This very elementary fragment of botanical lore once 

 stood me in good stead. Very many years ago, more 

 than I care to count up exactly, when I was a fledgeling 

 gardener and beginning to learn and collect plants, I was 

 taken to Coombe-Fishacre, a veritable Golconda of floral 

 treasures, and Mr. Archer Hinde, their kind custodian, was, 

 I knew, a great authority on plants. Imagine, then, my 

 nervousness when on going out to the garden I was asked 

 the name of a group of rosy-lilac flowers. " A Colchicum," 

 I cautiously replied, " but I am not sure which," and then 

 came the reassuring remark, "Oh, that will do. It's 

 speciosum, and I knew, but I always ask people, and if they 

 call it a Crocus I won't give them a thing." 



I still grow and value many of the plants I carried 

 away with me that afternoon, and bless my luck in having 

 known just enough to avoid calling a Colchicum a Crocus. 



I feel Meadow-saffron to be almost as bad a misnomer, 

 for Saffron is only the Arabic Zahferan, and in but slightly 

 altered forms the word is found in both Oriental and 

 European languages to denote Crocus sativus itself or the 

 drug procured from it. 



Crocus must be one of the oldest names given to a 



flower and still in common use. If there is an older I 



cannot recall it. It is the Latin form, from the Greek, of 



a very ancient word-root which appears in Sanskrit as 



69 



