258 VERNAL AND AUTUMNAL CROCUS. 



Lycoperdon tuber, truffles in the Hanger and 

 High-wood ; 



Sambucus ebulus, dwarf elder, walwort, or dane- 

 wort among the rubbish and ruined foundations 

 of the Priory ; 



Of all the propensities of plants, none seem more 

 strange than their different periods of blossoming. 

 Some produce their flowers in the winter, or very 

 first dawnings of spring ; many when the spring is 

 established ; some at Midsummer, and some not 

 till Autumn. When we see the helleborus fostidus 

 and helleborus niger blowing at Christmas, the 

 helleborus hyemalis in January, and the helleborus 

 viridis as soon as ever it emerges out of the ground, 

 we do not wonder, because they are kindred plants 

 that we expect should keep pace the one with the 

 other ; but other congenerous vegetables differ so 

 widely in their time of flowering, that we cannot 

 but admire. I shall only instance at present in 

 the crocus sativus, the vernal and the autumnal 

 crocus, which have such an affinity, that the best 

 botanists only make them varieties of the same 

 genus, of which there is only one species, not 

 being able to discern any difference in the corolla, 

 or in the internal structure. Yet the vernal crocus 

 expands its flowers by the beginning of March 

 at farthest, and often in very rigorous weather ; 

 and cannot be retarded but by some violence 

 offered; while the autumnal (the saffron) defies 

 the influence of the spring and summer, and will 

 not blow till most plants begin to fade and run to 

 seed. This circumstance is one of the wonders 

 of the creation, little noticed because a common 

 occurrence ; yet ought not to be overlooked on 

 account of its being familiar, since it would be as 

 difficult to be explained as the most stupendous 

 phenomenon in nature. 



