YELLOW BEEHIES. 



219 



country has given rise to a great number of varieties, which 

 are esteemed only as garden flowers. 



There are two kinds of saffron imported, the Spanish and 

 the Prench ; formerly an inferior kind was in use, called 

 Cahe Saffron, which was in flat cakes made by mixing it 

 with gum and rolling it into thin oval cakes about the size 

 of the hand. From 5000 to 7000 pounds only are annu- 

 ally imported ; and this is chiefly used in pharmacy, the 

 dyeing property being inferior in permanency to that of 

 other preferable materials. 



Yellow Berries. -r-The berries of RJiamnus infectorius. 

 (Nat. Ord. Ekamnacea,) (Plate XIII. fig. 64.) 



The Buckthorn, which produces the berries called yellow 

 herries, and sometimes Persian hemes, is a native of the 

 South of Europe, where it is much cultivated. It is a 

 procumbent shrub, growing naturally in rough rocky places ; 

 in the Levant it forms an important article of commerce, 

 and in France it is also extensively cultivated. The unripe 

 berries are gathered and dried; those from Smyrna and other 

 places in the Levant are the best ; those from France are 

 smaller and are not much used in this country, — they are 

 called Avignon berries, or Grains d' Avignon, 



Yellow-berries produce a beautiful yellow colour, which 



