SAFFRON. 181 



was metamorphosed into the plant called 

 Smilax, or Bindweed. 



Et Crocum in parvos versum cum Smilace flores. 



Ovid. 



The Greek name, perhaps, comes from 

 KpoTtU, which signifies a thread or hair, or 

 weaver's woof ; because saffron, when it is 

 dry and in strings, has that appearance. 

 Others derive it from Coriscus, a city and 

 mountain of Cilicia. Crocus is by the che- 

 mist, from its golden colour, called Aurutn 

 Philosophorum, by contraction, A roph ; by 

 others, Sanguis Herculis, and Aurum vegeta- 

 ble. For its extraordinary virtues in many 

 diseases, it has been honoured with the title 

 of Rex Vegetabilium, and Pajiacea vegetabilis. 



The English word Saffron is derived from 

 Zahafram, the Arabian name of this plant, 

 which is nearly the same in the French, 

 Dutch, and German languages. 



The unpolluted organs of which this flower 

 is robbed, to form saffron, were early known 

 to the Romans, as we find that the Cilician 

 physicians who attended Antony and Cleopa- 

 tra in Egypt, recommended saffron as a me- 

 dicine that cleared the complexion, by re- 

 lieving the jaundice or the bile. Diosco- 



