CLASS VI. ORDER Uf.] COLCHICUM. 533 



above, united at tlic base, membranous, inflated, each cell containing 

 numerous small elliptical secdi. 



Habitat. — Boggy places in the mountainous districts of England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland, but not very common. 



Perennial ; flowering in July and August. 



This species is nearly allied to T. borealis, Wahlenberg. fl. lapp. 

 p. 89, which has small globose spikes of flowers, and the leaves only 

 three ribbed, having the segments of the perianth ovate, tapering at 

 the base, and it is altogether a smaller plant ; it grows on the summit of 

 the alpine mountains, near the line of perpetual snow on the Euro- 

 pean Continent, and we have it from Labrador, in North America. 



GENUS XXVI 1. COL'CHICUM.— Linn. Meadow 



Saffron. 



Nat. Ord. Melantha'ce^. R. Brown. 



Gen. Char. Perianth single, tubular, long, with a camponulate six- 

 partite limb. Stamens inserted at the top of the tube. Styles 

 very long. Capsules three, single celled, united at the base, 

 inflated, many seeded. — Name from Colchis, a city of Armenia, 

 where this plant is said to have been common. 



1. C. autum^ia'le, Linn. (Fig. 610.) Autumnal Crocus, or Meadow 

 Saffron. Limb of the corolla cut into five or six lanceolate segments ; 

 stamens each alternately longer than the other ; leaves broadly lanceo- 

 late, acute, erect. 



English Botany, t. 133. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 202. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 174.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 264. 



/3. serotinis. Flowers abortive, with the limb of narrow green linear 

 segments. 



English Botany, t. 14.32.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 202. 



Bulb large, ovate, solid. Leaves produced in the spring without 

 the flowers, but with the capsule, dark green, smooth and shining, 

 about a foot long, and an inch and half broad, obtusely lanceolate, 

 erect, or somewhat flaccid, withering away before the flowers appear 

 in the autumn. Flotvers several, appearing in succession one after the 

 other, from the crown of the bulb, in the autumn without leaves, with 

 a long narrow <M6e, enveloped at the base in a thin membranous sheath, 

 the li7nb a pale purple, of five or six oblong lanceolate segments, the 

 three outer ones rather smaller than the other, and with a more taper- 

 ing point. Stamens inserted into the base of the segments of the 

 perianth, three alternate ones rather shorter than the three others. 

 Filaments slender, awl-shaped, about half as long as the perianth, 

 with oblong yellow anthers, of two cells. Styles three, very long, 

 VOL. I. 4 a 



