CROCUS AND EARLY SPRING FLOWERS 37 



unquotable line on the subject. Among the 

 Easterns it was held a choice spice : " Spikenard 

 and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees 

 of frankincense ; myrrh and aloes," were the spices 

 that were to flow out from the garden of the 

 Beloved in The Song of Solomon. One old 

 authority held it to be the food of the fairies, and 

 the humans in his day held it in high esteem. But 

 now it is fallen from its high estate, and, though 

 the County Council or some other body might 

 still prosecute a man for selling adulterated saffron, 

 it would be disinterested philanthropy, and bear 

 no resemblance to the burning of offenders at 

 Nuremberg in the fifteenth century for a similar 

 offence. In Persia it is still much used as a 

 condiment ; in a less degree in Spain ; in Holland 

 one finds it flavouring rice boiled with milk ; here 

 in England it lingers still in the saffron cakes of 

 Cornwall, otherwise it plays small part, except as a 

 food-colouring matter. For that it seems to have 

 been in use in Shakespeare's time. The clown, 

 who has so many things to buy for Perdita's 

 shearing feast, ticks it off among the rest : " I 

 must have saffron," he says, "to colour the 

 warden pies." And we, though we have lost the 

 receipt for warden pies, still use saffron to colour 



