186 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



" Five Hundred Points of good Husbandry," 

 as if it was planted by farmers in general, as 

 a part of their produce to be furnished to 

 their landlords. In his directions for the 

 month of August, he says, 



" Pare saffron between the two S. Maries daies, 

 or set or go shift it, that knoweth the waies : 

 What yeere shal I do it (more profit to yeeld), 

 the fourth in the garden, the third in the field. 



In hauing but fortie foot, workmanly dight, 

 take saffron inough, for a lord and a knight, 



Al winter-time after, as practise doth teach, 



what plot have ye better, for linnen to bleach. " 



In Hackluyt's Voyages*, the first introdu- 

 tion of the saffron into England is ascribed 

 to a pilgrim, who, purposing to do good to 

 his country, stole a head of saffron, and hid 

 it in his palmer's staff. This savours too 

 much of the miraculous, that a single plant, 

 which only increases about seven times its 

 number annually, should stock the nation. 



Gerard says, in 1597, " Common, or the 

 best known saffron, groweth plentifully in 

 Cambridgeshire, Saffron Walden, and other 

 places there-about, as corne in the fieldes." 

 In the following chapter of his Herbal he 



* Edit. 1599. vol.ii. 165. 



