278 SAFFRON. 



ing in the garden described by Solomon *. Homer f intro- 

 duces it as one of the flowers that formed the couch of Jupiter 

 and his consort ; and he represents Aurora coming forth with 

 her saffron-coloured robe to scatter light upon the earth. Vir- 

 gil more than once repeats the line, 



" Tithoni croceum linquens aurora cubile." 



Georg. i. v. 447 et JEn. iv. v. 585. 



He also speaks of " saffron-odours :" — 



" Nonne vides, croceos ut Tmolus odores, 



India mittit ebur, molles sua thura Saboei ?" 



and mentions Crocus as one of the flowers on which bees love 

 to feed : — 



" Pascuntur et arbusta passim, 



Et glaucas salices, cassiamque, crocumque rubentem." 



Tmolus was a mountain of Phrygia, celebrated for its saffron, 

 as was that which grew in Cilicia, on a mountain called Cory- 

 cus. Pliny J states, that the wine in which saffron had been 

 macerated, was used to sprinkle in theatres, on account of its 

 fragrant odour. Lucretius § adverts to this custom : — 



w Et cum scena croco Cilici perfusa recens est." 



Some writers imagine that saffron was an ingredient in the 

 famous Nepenthes of Homer. It was fabled that Crocus, a 

 beautiful youth, being consumed with his passion for a maiden 

 named Smilax, was changed by the gods into the plant which bears 

 his name; a metamorphosis which is commemorated by Ovid. 



Three species of Crocus, besides the one above described, 

 are enumerated as belonging to the British Flora, viz., the 

 naked-flowering Crocus (C. nudiflorus), distinguished by its 

 erect stigma within the flower, in three deeply lancinated tufted 

 segments, the flowers appearing before the leaves ; the least 

 Crocus (C. minimus), with the stigma erect within the flower, 

 in three linear, clavate, jagged segments, longer than the sta- 

 mens ; and the purple Spring Crocus (C. vernus), having the 



* Cant. iv. 14. 



f Iliad, lib. xiv. 346. See also his Hymn to Pan, v. 25. 



t Hist. lib. i. c 6. § Lib. ii. 



