SAFFRON. 201 



and gives a dark yellow tincture. It should 

 not be kept too long, being best fresh, neither 

 dry nor too moist, but firm and tough in 

 tearing, diffusing a strong acrid smell. A 

 small quantity of this drug will turn wine or 

 water to a reddish yellow colour. Saffron 

 affords a yellow colour to the dyers, and a 

 useful one to the painters in their water- 

 colours, as gamboge and king's yellow are not 

 sufficiently dark to shade without the assist- 

 ance of this tint. 



Saffron, by a chemical analysis, yields an 

 acrimonious, thin, and highly volatile spirit, 

 which comes off first, though in small quan- 

 tity, in the distillation ; to this succeeds a 

 sub-acid phlegm, which will turn a tincture of 

 heliotropium of a red colour ; then a very 

 little oil, and a very small quantity of uri- 

 nous salt. 



SAFFLOWER, or BASTARD SAFFRON.— 

 CARTHAMUS TINCTORIS. 



Natural order, Cinarocephala. A genus of 

 the Syngenesia Polygamia JEquaUs class. 



This plant, which was once cultivated to a 

 considerable extent in Gloucestershire, is now 



