CONCERNING BULBS xv 



fifty miles from Tripoli, in Syria, on an high hyll, called 

 in those parts Gasian, so as there you may learn at that 

 part of Tripoli the value of the pound, the goodnesse of 

 it, and the places of the vent. But it is said that from 

 that hyll there passeth yerely of that commodity fifteen 

 moiles laden, and that those regions notwithstanding 

 lacke sufficiency of that commodity. But if a vent 

 might be found, men would in Essex (about Saffron 

 Walden), and in Cambridgeshire, revive the trade for 

 the benefit of the setting of the poore on worke. So 

 would they do in Herefordshire, by Wales, where the 

 best of all England is, in which place the soil yields the 

 wilde Saffron commonly, which showeth the natural 

 inclination of the same soile to the bearing of the right 

 Saffron, if the soile be manured and that way employed." 

 The Amaryllis order contains the Daffodil and the 

 Snowdrop, as well as Leucojum aestivum, which is 

 thought by some to be a native species. It is, however, 

 the order of the Liliaceae to which belong the majority 

 of English bulbous flowering plants. Bluebells, like 

 " heavens upbreaking through the earth," purple Fritil- 

 laries, yellow Tulips, Stars of Bethlehem with curious 

 greenish flowers, Vernal Scillas, the not-so-pretty S. 

 autumnalis, and the Broad-leaved Garlic, whose white 

 flowers are among the most beautiful of all, though the 

 scent of the whole plant is very " grosse and very un- 

 pleasant for fayre ladies and tender lily rose colloured 

 damsels which often time profereth sweet breathes 

 before gentle wordes." There are a few other British 

 bulbous and cormous plants scattered among the various 

 orders, such as the Meadow-saffron which is still used 

 in pharmacy, but the greater number are contained in 

 the three orders named. 



