180 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



SAFFRON.— CROCUS SATIVUS. 



Natural order, Ensatce. A genus of the Tri- 

 andria Monogynia class. 



Thick new-born violets a soft carpet spread, 

 And clust'ring lotos swell'd the rising bed, 

 And sudden hyacinths the turf bestrow, 

 And flow'ry crocus made the mountain glow. 



Iliad, book 14. 



Homer having thus mentioned the crocus 

 as one of the four flowers that formed the 

 genial couch of Jove and Juno, has suggested 

 the supposition, that the exhilarating qua- 

 lities of this blossom were known in that 

 poet's day. Lindestolpe suspects that it 

 was the Nepenthe of Homer. It was the 

 Kpcxos of Theophrastus, but the Greeks ge- 

 nerally called this plant Kponos or Kpoxov. The 

 Latins named it Crocus, after a beautiful 

 youth, who was said to have been consumed 

 by the impatience of his love for Smilax, but 

 was by Hercules, his father, changed into 

 a flower that still bears his name. Smilax 



