BOOK XXI. xvii. 31-34 



But the prime favourite is that of Cilicia, and in 

 particular of Mount Corycus, then that of Mount 

 Olvmpus in Lycia, and then that of Centuripa in 

 Sicily. Some have «jiven second place to the safFron 

 of Thera. Nothing is adulterated as much as saffron. 

 A test of purity is whether under the pressure of 

 the hand it crackles as though brittle : for moist 

 saffron, as saffron is when adulterated, makes no 

 noise." Another test is whether it stings sHghtly the 

 face and eyes if after the abnve test you bring the 

 hand back ** to the face. There is a kind of cultivated 

 saffron which is for its own sake very attractive to 

 the general public, though it really is of moderate ^" 

 vahie, called dialeucon. That of Cyrene, on the 

 other hand, has the defect of being darker than 

 any other kind, and loses its quaHty very rapidly. 

 The best everywhere is that having a very rich 

 nature, and a short pistil ; the very worst has an 

 odour of decay. Mucianus is our authority for 

 stating that in Lycia after six or seven years it is 

 transplanted to a well-dug bed ; in this way it re- 

 covers from its degeneration. It is nowhere used 

 for chaplets, the plant having a leaf that is but little 

 broader than the fibre.'* Bu'- with wine, especially 

 with sweet wine, powdered saffron makes a wonderful 

 mixture to spray the theatre. The saffron plant 

 flowers for only a few days at the setting of the 

 Pleiades,^ and pushes off the flower with its leaves. 



* Theophrastns has (//.P. VI. 6, 10) (jitTay HXeidSa yap dvOel 

 Kal oXlyas -qjxepas' evBvs S' d/ia rco (fjvXXco Kal to dvdos d>dei. 

 Ht)rt translates "after the rising of the Pleiades " (i.e. May). 

 Surely this iswrong; it is the setting of the Pleiades in 

 November to which reference is made. But Pliny mis- 

 translates evQvs 8e k.t.X., which means that the fiower springs 

 up at the same time as the leaf. 



185 



