Bij Joseph Sabine, Esq. 



123 



naeflorus, C. luteus, C. lacteus, C. biflorus, C. argenteus, C. 

 pusillus, C. versicolor and C. vernus — all, without doubt, with 

 the exceptions above stated, ancient occupiers of the flower 

 border, but only recently distinguished and separated from 

 each other. 



Parkinson in his Paradisus,* first published in 1629, 

 describes twenty-seven kinds of Spring Crocus or Saffron 

 (exclusive of a few sub-varieties to some of his kinds) the 

 whole of which were then known in the Gardens ; some of 

 these are now referable to plants I shall have to notice, but it 

 is probable that others are lost, and that several, though still 

 in existence, cannot, from the imperfection of the descriptions, 

 be now properly placed with certainty, under their Garden 

 appellations. These difficulties occur with, and the observa- 

 tions are equally applicable to, the kinds mentioned by Mil- 

 ler, in the first edition of his Gardener's Dictionary printed 

 in 1731. He there gave the names, and short characters of 

 twenty Spring Crocuses, but in the seventh and eighth editions 

 of the work, the former printed in 1759, the latter in 1768, he 

 altered this arrangement, dividing them into two species and 

 twelve varieties only. Parkinson and Miller must be con- 

 sidered the authorities for the Garden Crocuses of their times, 

 in Great Britain. 



The Spring Crocuses which had been seen, described, or 

 figured, by the older Botanists, viz. Besler, Camerarius, 

 Clusius, Dalechamp, Dodoens, Lobel, Swertius and 

 others, previous to, and at the commencement of, the Seven- 

 teenth century, were collected together by Caspar Bauhin in 

 his Pinax(page 65, &c), in 1623, and formed into three Classes, 



* Parkinson's Paradisus, &c. p. 1G0. 



