128 POPULAR GARDEN FLOWERS 



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." And Hakluyt goes on to say : 

 " It is reported at Saffron Walden that a pilgrim, pro- 

 posing to do good to his country, stole a head of 

 Saffron, and hid the same in his palmer's staffe, which 

 he had made hollow before of purpose, and so he 

 brought the root into this realme with venture of his 

 life, for if he had been taken, by the law of the country 

 from whence it came, he had died for the fact." If 

 Hakluyt is accurate, saffron -growing was introduced 

 into Essex long before Smith's time, for the latter was 

 contemporary with him. 



Saffron Hill, in London, also derives its name, accord- 

 ing to Cunningham, from the crops of saffron which it 

 bore. That delectable quarter is now the home of the 

 Italian colony of organ-grinders, whose efforts turn 

 many a harassed London writer of as bilious a colour 

 as that of the " snipt - taffeta fellow " described by 

 Shakespeare in "All's Well that Ends Well," whose 

 "villainous saffron would have made all the unbaked 

 and doughy youth of a nation in his colour." Flying 

 to the wilds of Cornwall for solitude, the literary man 

 finds nothing worse to remind him of the terrors which 

 he has escaped than the saffron cake, so beloved of the 

 Cornish folk. 



The references to the saffron Crocus by Pliny show 

 that it was cultivated in Cilicia, a region in the south-east 

 of Asia Minor, in his time ; and later writers, probably 

 taking their cue from the Roman, referred to it as a 

 Cilician plant. Thus Spenser's 



" Saffron sought for on Cilician soyle." 

 It may have been a native of Asia Minor, but it was 



