160 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



in Arabia, of which the seeds are called elkiirthwm." 

 Abu Anifa was very likely right. 



Saffron — Crocus sativus, Linnaeus. 



The saffron was cultivated in very early times in the 

 west of Asia. The Romans praised the saffron of Cilicia, 

 which they preferred to that grown in Italy.^ Asia Minor, 

 Persia, and Kashmir have been for a long time the 

 countries which export the most. India gets it from 

 Kashmir ^ at the present day. Roxburgh and Wallich 

 do not mention it in their works. The two Sanskrit 

 names mentioned by Piddington ^ probably applied to the 

 substance saffron brought from the West, for the name 

 Jcasmi/rajamina appears to indicate its origin in Kashmir. 

 The other name is kunkuma. The Hebrew word karkom 

 is commonly translated saffron, but it more probably 

 applies to carthamine, to judge from the name of the 

 latter in Arabic* Besides, the saffron is not cultivated 

 in Egypt or in Arabia. The Greek name is krokos.^ 

 Saffron, which recurs in all modern European languages, 

 comes from the Arabic sahafaran,^ zafran? The 

 Spaniards, nearer to the Arabs, call it azafran. The 

 Arabic name itself comes from assfar, yellow. 



Trustworthy authors say that 0. sativus is wild 

 in Greece® and in the Abruzzi mountains in Italy .^ 

 Maw, who is preparing a monograph of the genus Crocus, 

 based on a long series of observations in gardens and 

 in herbaria, connects with G. sativus six forms which 

 are found wild in mountainous districts from Italy to 

 Kurdistan. None of these, he says,^" are identical with 

 the cultivated variety; but certain forms described 

 under other names {G. Orisnii, G. Cartivrigktianus, G. 

 ThoTTMsii), hardly differ from it. These are from Italy 

 and Greece. • 



' Pliny, bk. xxi. o. 6. * Eoyle, III. Himal., p. 372. 



• Indew, p. 25. 



• According to Forskal, Delile, Reynier, SoWeinfurth, and Ascherson. 



• Theophrastus, Hist,, 1. 6, c> 6. 



• J. Bauhin, Hist., ii. p. 637. ' Eoyle, HI. ffimoJ. 

 " Sibthorp, Prodr. ; Fraas, Syn. Fl. Class., p. 292. 



' J. Gay, quoted by Babington, Man. Brit. Fl. 

 •' Maw, in the Gardener's Chron., 1881, vol. xyi. 



