160 The Garden of plea/ant Flowers. 



fter, and other places alfo. The double kindes are thought to come out of 

 Germany. 



The Time. 



Their times likewife are declared in their feuerall defcriptions : thofe 

 that are earlieft in Autumne, flower in Auguft and September, the later 

 in October, and the lateft in the end of October, and in November. The 

 other are faid to bee of the Spring, in regard they come after the deepe of 

 Winter (which is moft vfually in December and lanuary) is part. 



The Names. 



The generall name to all thefe plants is Colchicum, whereunto fome haue 

 added Ephemerum, becaufe it killeth within one dayes fpace ; and fome 

 Strangulatorium. Some haue called them alfo Bulbus AgreJHs, and Filius ante 

 Patrem, The Sonne before the Father, becaufe (as they thinke) it giueth 

 feede before the flower : but that is without due confideration ; for the root 

 of this (as of moft other bulbous plants) after the ftalke of leaues and feede 

 are dry, and part, may be tranf planted, and then it beginneth to fpring and 

 giue flowers before leaues, (and therein onely it is differing from other 

 plants) but the leaues and feede follow fuccefliuely after the flowers, before 

 it may be remoued againe ; fo that here is not feede before flowers, but con- 

 trarily flowers vpon the firft planting or fpringing, and feede after, as in all 

 other plants, though in a diuers manner. 



The Colchicum HermodaStilum may feeme very likely to bee the Colchicum 

 Orientate of Matthiolus, or the Colchicum Alexandrinum of Lobelius : And 

 fome thinke it to be the true HermoJaSKhts, and fo call it, but it is not fo. We 

 doe generally call them all in Englifh Medowe Saffrons, or Colchicum, ac- 

 cording to the Latine, giuing to euery one his other adiundt to know it by. 



The Vertues. 



None of thefe are vfed for any Phyficall refpect, being generally held 

 to be deadly, or dangerous at the leaft. Only the true Hermodaclile (if it be 

 of this tribe, and not this which is here exprefled) is of great vfe, for paines 

 in the ioynts, and of the hippes, as the Sciatica, and the like, to be taken in- 

 wardly. Cofheus in his Booke of the nature of plants, faith, that the rootes 

 of our common kindes are very bitter in the Spring of the yeare, and fweet 

 in Autumne, which Camerarius contradidleth, faying, that he found them 

 bitter in Autumne, which were (as he faith) giuen by fome importers to di- 

 uers, as an antidote againft the Plague. 



CHAP. XVII. 

 Crocus. Saffron. 



THere are diuers forts of Saffrons, whereof many doe flower in the Spring 

 time, and fome in Autumne, among whom there is but one onely kinde, that 

 is called tame or of the Garden, which yeeldeth thofe blades or chiues that are 

 vfed in meates and medicines, and many wayes profitable for other ref peels, none of 

 the reft, which are all wilde kindes, giuing any blade equall vnto thofe of the tame 

 kinde, or for any other vfe, then in regard of their beautifull flowers of feuerall varie- 

 ties, and as they haue been carefully fought out, and preferued by diuers, to furnifh a 

 Garden of dainty curiofity. To entreate therefore of thefe, I muft, to obferue an or- 

 derly declaration, diuide them into two primary families : the former fhall be of thofe 

 that yeeld their pleafant flowers in the Spring of the yeare, and the other that fend out 



their 



