210 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



Dr. Forbes Watson writes : 



"I use the old name Wake Robin because it is so 

 full of poetry to think of the bird aroused from 

 sleep by the soundless ringing of the bell. Arum, or 

 Lords and Ladies, is the more usual name." 



The plant is under the dominion of Mars, so the 

 astrologers said. 



IX 



Saffron Crocus and Cuckoo-flowers 



SAFFRON CROCUS (Crocus verus sativus 

 Autumnalis). Shakespeare speaks of saffron as a 

 color "the saffron wings of Iris" and "saffron to 

 color the Warden [pear] pies." He never mentions 

 the crocus from which the saffron was obtained, yet 

 a Shakespeare garden should have this plant repre- 

 sented. Saffron had long been known in England; 

 for in the time of Edward III a pilgrim from the 

 East had brought, concealed in his staff, a root of the 

 precious Arabic al zahafaran. In Shakespeare's 

 time saffron was used for soups and sauces and to 

 color and flavor pies, cakes, and pastry-confection. 

 Saffron was also important medicinally, and for 

 dyeing silks and other materials. The beautiful 

 orange-red stigmas, the crocei odores of Virgil, were 



