470 
The BRITISH HERBAL. 
DIVISION II. FOREIGN SPECIES. 
Blue Mufcari. 
Hyacinlhus pre canilto ghhcfa. 
The root is round and fmall. 
The leaves are numerous, and of a pale green. 
■ The ftalk is round, upright, broad, and ten 
inches high.- 
The flo\vers ftand drooping in a thick, fliorc 
fpilce at the top and they are globular, or nearJy 
fo, and blue. 
It is a native of the Eafl-, and flowers in Au- 
guft. 
C. Bauhine calls it Mufcari vidgare. 
G E N U S V. 
MEADOW-SAFFRON. 
COLCHJCVM. 
ri-lHE flower is large, and rifes immediately from the root. It confiflis of a long, tubular bafe, 
1 and a broad body, at the top divided into fix fegments, refembling fo many large petals. There 
is no cup. The feed-vefi'el is divided into three parts, and the leaves appear at a different time from 
the flowers. 
Linnsus places this among the hixamria Irigyltk ; the threads being flx, and the ftyles three, and 
of equal length with them. 
Meadow-Saifron. 
Cohhicum vuigare. 
The root is large and round. 
The leaves are numerous, long, and when fully 
expanded very broad ; they naturally appear at a 
difterent time from the flower ; and if any chance 
to rife with it, they are narrower. 
The flower rifes out of the ground without any 
ftalk, its own tubular bafe ferving to that pur- 
pofe : it is very large, and of a pale, but elegant 
purple. Tlie fegments are naturally flx ; buC 
fometimes they are double that number in the 
wild plant i and fometimes, infliead of an uniform 
purple, the flower is ftreaked with white, or is 
white throughout. 
We have it in meadows in our fouthern coun- 
ties. It flowers in September. 
C. Bauhine calls it Cohhtcnm communs. 
The root is accounted poifonous. 
GENUS VI. 
SAFFRON. 
CROCUS. 
THE flower is formed of a Angle petal, tubular, and very long at the bafe, and divided into fix 
fcf^ments at the edge, which feem fo many diftin£t petals. The fcabbard ferving as a cup, is 
formed°of a Angle piece. The fecd-veflel is roundifli, but marked with three ridges. 
This plant, which is fcarce to be diftinguhhed as a genus from the preceding, Linnaeus places in 
a different clafs, the trimdria, becaufe the threads in the flower are only three. 
True Saffron. 
Crocus verus mitummlis. 
The root is roundifli, and has many fibres at 
the bottom. 
The leaves are very narrow and graffy, of a 
dark green, and ate marked with a white rib along 
the middle. 
The flowers are large, and of a fine blue purple, 
with orange-coloured tops to the ftyles. 
It is found in fome parts of the kingdom grow- 
ing in fields under hedges, but probably has been 
owing to roots fcattered from places where it was 
cukivated for fale. 
It flowers in Augufl. 
C. Bauhine calls it Crocus fatlvus. 
The part ufed in medic. ne rifes from the top of 
the ftyle, and is in its termination deftined to re- 
ceive the farina from the buttons of the threads, 
for impregnating the feeds. This confiifs of 
three orange-coloured, waved, flat filaments ; 
which are feparated from the reft of the flower, 
and dried with care. 
The whole compafs of medicine does not af- 
ford a nobler cordial or fudorifick. It is excel- 
lent alfo in obftruftions of the vifcera, in powder 
or tinifture. 
GENUS 
