HERBS CHIEFLY USED IN THE PAST 8i 



Canon Ellacombe says that the Arabic name, Al 

 Zahafaran was the general name for all Croci, and ex- 

 tended to the Cclchicums, which were called Meadow 

 Saffrons. It is pointed out by Mr Friend that, further, 

 the flower has given its name to a colour, and had given 

 it in the days of Homer, and he remarks how much 

 more exactly the expression "Saffron-robed" morning 

 describes the particular tints seen sometimes before sun- 

 rise (or at sunset) than any other words can do. Saffron 

 Walden in Essex, whose arms are given on page loi, 

 and Saffron Hill in London (which once formed part of 

 the Bishop of Ely's garden), are also obviously named 

 after it, and as is seen in the former case it has given 

 arms to a borough. As to its introduction into England 

 Hakluyt writes (1582): "It is reported at Saffron 

 Walden that a pilgrim proposing to do good to his 

 country, stole a head of Saffron, and hid the same in 

 his Palmer's Staffe, which he had made hollow before of 

 purpose, and so he brought the root into this realme 

 with venture of his life, for if he had been taken, by the 

 law of the countrey from whence it came, he had died 

 for the fact " (" English Voyages," vol. ii.). Canon 

 Ellacombe thinks that it was probably originally brought 

 here in the days of the Romans, and found "in a 

 Pictorial Vocabulary of the fourteenth century, 'Hie 

 Crocus, An^= Safryn,' so that I think the plant must have 

 been in cultivation in England at that time." In the 

 work of " Mayster Ion Gardener," written about 1440, 

 one of the eight parts into which it is divided is wholly 

 devoted to a discourse, " Of the Kynde of Saferowne," 

 which shows that Saffron must have been a good deal 

 considered in his day. The Charity Commission of 

 148 1 mentions two Saffron-gardens; and in the church- 

 warden's accounts at Saffron Walden, in the second 

 year of Richard III.'s reign, there is an entry, " Payd to 

 John Rede for pyking of Vunc Saffroni, xii." The 



