84 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



allied to it is the perfoliate yellow-wort, which is often called 

 the yellow gentian. This clings more closely to chalk and 

 limestone soils than the centaury, and is less common. It 

 has bright yellow star-shaped blossoms, and can easily be 



recognised by its pairs of 

 smooth grey-green leaves, 

 which surround the stem like 

 a collar. It begins to bloom 

 soon after midsummer but 

 often lingers late into Sep- 

 tember. 



Yet another purple flower, 

 more strictly characteristic of 

 this month, is the beautiful 

 meadow saffron, which thrusts 

 up its head of crocus-like 

 blossom in damp meadows 

 when the verdant aftermath 

 begins to shoot in the autumn 

 dews. It is not very common 

 in this country, and is chiefly 

 seen in some of the valleys 

 of the western Midlands and 

 Wales. In Germany, Swit- 

 zerland, and some other parts 

 of the Continent it grows 

 abundantly in many of the 

 cooler and shadier grass- 

 fields, and is familiar to most travellers in late August and 

 September. Much like those of garden crocuses, the leaves 

 shoot after the blossom ; but in the case of the saffron they 

 do not appear till the following spring, so that the flowers 

 seem to spring from nothing and vanish almost like soap- 



MEADOW SAFFRON 



