6G4 IRIDACE^. 



Crocus of the gardens, but blossoming in the autumn. It has an elegant 

 purple flower, with a large orange-red stigma, the three pendulous 

 divisions of which are protruded beyond the perianth. 



The Saffron Crocus is supposed to be indigenous to Greece, Asia 

 Minor, and perhaps Persia, but it has been so long under cultivation in 

 the East that its primitive home is somewhat doubtful.^ 



History — Saffron, either as a medicine, condiment, perfume, or dye 

 has been highly prized by mankind from a remote period, and has 

 played an important part in the history of commerce. 



Under the Hebrew name Carcom, which is supposed to be the root 

 of the word Crocus, the plant is alluded to by Solomon ; ^ and as Kpo'/co?, 

 by Homer, Hippocrates, Theophrastus, and Theocritus. Virgil and 

 Columella mention the saffron of Mount Tmolus ; the latter also names 

 that of Corycus in Cilicia, and of Sicily, both which localities are 

 alluded to as celebrated for the drug by Dioscorides and Pliny. 



Saffron was an article of traffic on the Red Sea in the first century ; 

 and the author of the Periplus remarks that K/oo/co? is exported from 

 Egypt to Southern Arabia, and from Barygaza in the gulf of Cam- 

 bay. It was well known under the name kunkuma to the earlier 

 Hindu writers. 



It was cultivated at Derbend and Ispahan in Persia, and in Trans- 

 oxania in the 10th century,^ whence it is not improbable the plant was 

 carried to China, for according to the Chinese it came thither from the 

 country of the Mahomedans. Chinese writers have recorded that 

 under the Yuen dynasty (a.d. 1280-1868), it became the custom to mix 

 Sa-fa-lang (Saffron) with food.® 



There is evidence to show that saffron was a cultivated production 

 of Spain '^ as early as A.D. 961 ; yet it is not so mentioned, but only as an 

 eastern drug, by St. Isidore, archbishop of Seville in the 7th century. 

 As to France, Italy, and Germany, it is commonly said that the saffron 

 crocus was introdued into these countries by the Crusaders. Porchaires, 

 a French nobleman, is stated to have brought some bulbs to Avignon 

 towards the end of the 14th century, and to have commenced the 

 cultivation in the Comtat Venaissin, where it existed down to recent 

 times. About the same time, the growing of saffron is said to have 

 been introduced by the same person into the district of Gatinais, so\ith 

 of Paris.'^ At that period, saffron was one of the productions of Cyprus,*^ 

 with which island France was then, through the princes of Lusignan, 

 particularly related. 



During the middle ages, the saffron cultivated at San Gemignano in 

 Tuscany was an important article of exportation to Genoa." That of 



^ Chappellier has pointed out that '* Bretschneider, CJdnese Botanical Works, 



Crocus sativus L. is unknown in a wild Foochow, 1870. 15. 



state, and that it hardly ever produces seed " Le Cakndrier de Cordoue de Vannee 



even though artificially fertilized ; and has 961, Leyde, 1873. 33. 109. 

 argued from these facts that it is probably a ^ Com-ad et Waldmann, TraU4 du Safran 



hybrid. — Bulletin de la Soc. hot. de. France, du Gatinais, Paris, 1846. (23 jjages; — no 



XX. (1853) 191. authority quoted). 



2 Canticles, ch. iv. 14. ^ De Mas Latrie, Hist, de Vile de Chypre, 



* Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, iii. iii. 498. 



(1857) 52. ^ Bourquelot, Foires de la Champagne, 



* Istachri, BvaJi der Lander, iibersetzt Mem. de I'Acad. des inscript. et belles- 

 von Mordtmann, 87. 93. 124. 126 ; Edrisi, lettres de Tlnbtitut, v. (1865) 286. 

 G6ographie, trad, par Jaubert, 168. 192. 



