CROCUS SATIVUS. 
n 
Gen. Char. Corolla six-parted, equal. Stigmata convolute. 
Spec. Char. of one valve, radical. Corolla vfith the 
longest tube. 
The Crocus tribe of plants are mostly indigenous to the South of 
Europe and Asia : eleven species are cultivated in our gardens, 
chiefly for ornament.* The Crocus Sativus was considered by former 
botanists as an exotic, nor was it known in the time of Ray, Miller, 
and many later writers, that this plant was unquestionably a native 
of Britain. Modern botanists do not hesitate in ranking this species 
of Crocus among the indigenous plants of this country ; but if it was 
originally an exotic, it has been long naturalized to our soil, and is 
now found growing, wild in many parts of the country. 
The root is bulbous, (perennial) and externally of a brown colour; 
the leaves are linear, simple, radical, of a rich green, with a white 
line running through the centre ; the flower is large, of a purple 
colour, inclining tp blue or lilac, the tube of which is inclosed at the 
base, along with the leaves, in the membranous sheath or spathe ; 
the corolla is composed of six petals, elliptical, equal, and turned 
inward at the edges ; the filaments are three, short, tapering, and 
support long, erect, spear-shaped, yellow antherze ; the germen is 
ovate or roundish, supporting a slender style, terminated by three 
long convoluted stigmata, of a golden colour ; the capsule is of 
an oval form, three-lobed, three-celled, and three-valved, and con- 
tains many round seeds. 
The officinal saffron is composed of the stigmata of the species of 
Crocus we have been describing, and is prepared for use as follows. 
In the autumn, the flowers when in full blossom are gathered every 
morning, the stigmata and top of the style picked from them, and 
dried in portable kilns constructed for the purpose. The stigmata 
are spread two or three inches thick upon sheets of white paper, 
laid over a hair cloth, which is placed upon the kiln, and covered 
with a blanket; the kiln being heated to a proper degree, the saffron 
is turned every half hour until sufficiently dried, which usually re- 
quires about twenty-four hours. f 
The Crocus is chiefly cultivated for the preparation of English 
saffron in the neighbourhood of Saffron Walden, in Essex, and in 
some parts of Cambridgeshire. 
* Hort. Cant. 
t Vide Doaglas, in Phil. Trans, vol. xxxv. p. 566. 
