176 GARDEN FLOWERS. 



species, {Gentiana nivalis,) which dehghted 

 Linnaeus when on the Pyrenees by its bhie blos- 

 soms, is j;olerably hardy ; and the kind termed 

 Calathian violet, succeeds well. These have 

 both blue flowers. The name of Gentius, a 

 king of Illyria, is preserved to memory by these 

 flowers, as this monarch is said, by Pliny, to 

 have discovered their tonic virtues. 



The different kinds of autumnal crocus open 

 as the season advances. The purple species, 

 which is so general in this and the next months, 

 is the saffron crocus, (Crocus sativits,) the stig- 

 mas of whose flowers form the saffron of the 

 dru2:o;ist. This flower has long- been cultivated 



CO O 



in many parts of Asia, as well as in Greece. 

 In Persia and Cashmere, large plantations of 

 this crocus are general, and some of the lands 

 of Smyrna are said to be quite purple with it, 

 while its flowers are in great abundance in the 

 gardens of Aleppo. In Europe it seems to 

 grow wild on the south of the Tyrol, and on the 

 Alps of Saivoy ; but its occasional appearance 

 in our British meadows does not prove that it 

 is indigenous there. Dr. Clarke found the 

 plains of Tahtary covered with its gay flowers, 

 and its bulbs were deeply seated in the black 

 vegetable moiild which forms the soil of these 

 wide plains. Notwithstanding that the saftron 

 crocus is cultivated in England, yet we receive 

 our chief supply of the drug from France and 

 Spain. In the latter country the cultivator of 

 this flower is much annoyed by a fungus found 

 upon it, and which the French call moi't de 



