lOU OEIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



in Arabia, of which the seeds are called elLarthum." 

 A.bu Anifa was very likely right. 



Saffron Crocus sativus, Linna?us. 



The saffron was cultivated in very early times in the 

 w^cst of Asia. The Romans praised the saffron of Cilicia, 

 which they preferred to that grown in Italy.^ Asia Minor, 

 Persia, and Kashmir have been for a long time the 

 countries wdiich export the most. India gets it from 

 Kashmir ^ at the present day. Eoxburgh and "Wallich 

 do not mention it in their works. The two Sanskrit 

 names mentioned by Piddington ^ probably applied to the 

 substance saffron brought from the West, for the name 

 kasmirajamriia appears to indicate its origin in Kashmir. 

 The other name is kxmkuma. The Hebrew word karl-om 

 is commonly translated saffron, but it more probably 

 applies to caith amine, to judge from the name of the 

 latter in Arabic* Besides, the saffron is not cultivated 

 in Egypt or in Arabia. The Greek name is Jcrokos.^ 

 Saffron, which recurs in all modern European languages, 

 comes from the Arabic sakafaran,'^ zafranJ Tlie 

 Spaniards, nearer to the Arabs, call it azafran. The 

 Ai-abic name itself comes from assfar, yellow. 



Trustworthy authors say that G. sativus is wild 

 in Greece^ and in the Abruzzi mountains in Italy.^ 

 Maw, who is preparing a monograph of the genus Crocus, 

 based on a long series of observations in gardens and 

 in herbaria, connects with C. sativus six forms which 

 are found wild in mountainous districts from Italy to 

 Kurdistan. None of these, he says,^*^ are identical with 

 the cultivated variety; but certain forms described 

 under otlier names (C. Orisnii, C. Cartwrvjldianus, G. 

 Thomasii), hardly differ from it. These are from Italy 

 and Greece. 



> riiny, bk. xxi. c. 6. Eojlc, III. Himah, p. 372. 



' Index, p. 25. 



* According to Forskal, Dclile, Eoynier, Schweiufurth, and Ascherscn. 



* Tlieophrastus, Hist., 1. G, c. 6. 



6 J. Bauhin, Hist., ii. p. 637. ' Royle, III. Himal, 



* Sibthorp, Prodr. ; Fraas, Syn. Fl. Class., p. 292. 

 ' J. Gay, quoted by Babington, Man. Brit. Fl. 



" Maw, in the Gardener's Chron., ISSl, vol. xvi. 



