Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



for yellow. The perianth of the flower is purplish, 

 but the stigmata, from which the dye comes, are, as 

 Martyn says, of the colour of fire. It must, I think, 

 be to the stigmata that Virgil's epithet applies. The 

 dye is too distinctly yellow, and a yellow blush would 

 exceed even the ancient capacity for confounding 

 colours. 



As a native plant the saffron extends from Kurdi- 

 stan to the Mediterranean, and some botanists regard 

 it as a native of Italy. Arcangeli, however, says 

 that it is only naturalized in his country, and Virgil 

 seems to hold that opinion, for he says that the 

 saffron perfume came from Tmolus, a range of 

 mountains in Lydia. Theophrastus, however, holds 

 that the best was made in Aegina and in Cilicia, 

 but he adds that the plant was plentiful about 

 Cyrene in North Africa. The Cilician brand was 

 generally preferred at Rome. 



The product of the stigmata had three uses : as 

 a scent, as a dye, and as an ingredient in cookery. 

 As a scent it is coupled in the Song of Solomon with 

 spikenard, and at Rome mixed with wine it was 

 used as a spray in the theatres and on the floors 

 of rooms. It was also put into a pot-pourri. As 

 a dye for clothing it was regarded as somewhat 

 Oriental and luxurious. Virgil makes the fierce 

 Numanus, a primitive Italian, taunt the followers of 

 Aeneas with their yellow and purple robes : ' Vobis 

 picta croco et fulgenti murice vestis' {Ae. ix. 614). 

 Nevertheless, Virgil must often have seen women 

 at least wearing it. For its abiding use in cookery 



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